debimosvsdécimasConfusable pair

Quick tell: debimos is a verb, décimas is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“debimos” is a verb and “décimas” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,013
“debimos” frequency rank
#29,178
“décimas” frequency rank
66191
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debimos décimas
Definition Primera persona del plural (nosotros, nosotras) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de deber. Forma del femenino plural de décimo.

Where the eye mixes debimos and décimas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
debimos
7 ch
décimas

Look-alike desk: debimos vs décimas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: debimos is [d̪eˈβ̞imos] while décimas is [ˈd̪esimas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

debimos is recorded at frequency rank #37,013, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞imos]. décimas is at rank #29,178, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈd̪esimas].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 66191, this pair ranks #40,512 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of debimos vs décimas

Shared letters: dims. Private to "debimos": beo. Private to "décimas": acé.

"debimos" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "décimas" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • debimosdbeimos · ddebimos · debbimos · debimmos · debimoss · debimso · debioms · debmios

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "debimos" for "décimas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "debimos" is a verb and "décimas" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "debimos" or "décimas" show up more?
"décimas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,178 in our Spanish list, against #37,013 for "debimos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "debimos" and "décimas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "debimos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décimas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,512 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "debimos" and "décimas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "debías vs debimos". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #40,512 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list