debióvsdedoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: debió is a verb, dedo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“debió” is a verb and “dedo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,706
“debió” frequency rank
#2,823
“dedo” frequency rank
5529
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debió dedo
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de deber. Cada uno de los apéndices en que termina la mano.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set debió and dedo apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
debió
4 ch
dedo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: debió is [d̪eˈβ̞jo] while dedo is [ˈd̪eð̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5529, 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]. dedo is at rank #2,823, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪eð̞o].

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 5529, this pair ranks #313,394 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of debió vs dedo

Shared letters: de. Private to "debió": bió. Private to "dedo": o.

"debió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "dedo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dedoddedo · ddeo · deddo · deod · eddo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "debió" and "dedo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "debió" is a verb and "dedo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "debió" or "dedo"?
"debió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,706 in our Spanish list, against #2,823 for "dedo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list