decíavsdeckWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,136
“decía” frequency rank
#38,040
“deck” frequency rank
39176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature decía deck
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de decir. Cubierta.

Where the eye mixes decía and deck

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
decía
4 ch
deck

Why the eye confuses decía with deck

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: decía is [d̪eˈsia] while deck is /dɛk/. 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 39176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

decía is recorded at frequency rank #1,136, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈsia]. deck is at rank #38,040, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɛk/.

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 39176, this pair ranks #165,985 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of decía vs deck

Shared letters: cde. Private to "decía": . Private to "deck": k.

"decía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "deck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deckdcek · ddeck · decck · deckk · dekc · edck

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "decía" for "deck" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "decía" is a verb and "deck" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "decía" or "deck" show up more?
"decía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,136 in our Spanish list, against #38,040 for "deck". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "decía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,985 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "decía" and "deck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deck vs Deva". 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 #165,985 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