dejarvsdonarConfusable pair

Which to use

“dejar” and “donar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#392
“dejar” frequency rank
#9,443
“donar” frequency rank
9835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dejar donar
Definition Depositar o colocar una cosa en su sitio. Ceder un bien material sin obtener a cambio un pago de quien recibe.

Where the eye mixes dejar and donar

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

5 ch
dejar
5 ch
donar

Why the eye confuses dejar with donar

A purely visual mix-up. dejar ([d̪eˈxaɾ]) and donar ([d̪oˈnaɾ]) 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 9835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dejar is recorded at frequency rank #392, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈxaɾ]. donar is at rank #9,443, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪oˈnaɾ].

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 9835, this pair ranks #300,685 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dejar vs donar

Shared letters: adr. Private to "dejar": ej. Private to "donar": no.

"dejar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "donar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dejarddejar · deajr · dejarr · dejjar · dejra · djear · edjar
  • donarddonar · dnoar · doanr · donarr · donnar · donra · odnar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dejar" for "donar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([d̪eˈxaɾ] versus [d̪oˈnaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dejar" vs "donar" - which ranks higher?
"dejar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #392 in our Spanish list, against #9,443 for "donar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dejar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,685 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dejar" and "donar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "donar vs dont". 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 #300,685 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