Which to use
“debió” and “decir” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,706
- “debió” frequency rank
- #131
- “decir” frequency rank
- 2837
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | debió | decir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de deber. | Manifestar con palabras el pensamiento. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set debió and decir apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. debió ([d̪eˈβ̞jo]) and decir ([d̪eˈsiɾ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
debió is recorded at frequency rank #2,706, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞jo]. decir is at rank #131, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈsiɾ].
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 2837, this pair ranks #319,554 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of debió vs decir
Shared letters: dei. Private to "debió": bó. Private to "decir": cr.
"debió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "decir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- decir ← dceir · ddecir · deccir · decirr · decri · deicr · desir · edcir