Which to use
“decía” is a verb and “deir” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,136
- “decía” frequency rank
- #46,473
- “deir” frequency rank
- 47609
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | decía | deir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de decir. | Mutación suave del adjetivo numeral cardinal femenino teir ('tres') |
Where the eye mixes decía and deir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. decía runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against deir's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses decía with deir
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: decía is [d̪eˈsia] while deir is [ˈdɛjr]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47609, 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]. deir is at rank #46,473, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdɛjr].
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 47609, this pair ranks #119,124 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of decía vs deir
Shared letters: de. Private to "decía": ací. Private to "deir": ir.
"decía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "deir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- deir ← ddeir · deirr · deri · edir
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "decía" and "deir" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "decía" or "deir" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "decía" and "deir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "decía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "deir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #119,124 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "decía" and "deir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deir 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 #119,124 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.