debióvsdeptoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,706
“debió” frequency rank
#17,104
“depto” frequency rank
19810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debió depto
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de deber. Departamento (unidad de vivienda dentro de un edificio).

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
debió
5 ch
depto

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: debió is [d̪eˈβ̞jo] while depto is [ˈd̪ept̪o]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19810, 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]. depto is at rank #17,104, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ept̪o].

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 19810, this pair ranks #262,108 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of debió vs depto

Shared letters: de. Private to "debió": bió. Private to "depto": opt.

"debió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "depto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deptoddepto · depot · deppto · deptto · detpo · dpeto · edpto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "debió" and "depto" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "debió" is a verb and "depto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "debió" or "depto"?
"debió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,706 in our Spanish list, against #17,104 for "depto". 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