dejóvsdeliWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dejó is a verb, deli is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dejó” is a verb and “deli” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#985
“dejó” frequency rank
#49,566
“deli” frequency rank
50551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dejó deli
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de dejar. Delicioso.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
dejó
4 ch
deli

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dejó is [d̪eˈxo] while deli is [ˈd̪eli]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dejó is recorded at frequency rank #985, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈxo]. deli is at rank #49,566, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈd̪eli].

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 50551, this pair ranks #102,598 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dejó vs deli

Shared letters: de. Private to "dejó": . Private to "deli": il.

"dejó" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "deli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deliddeli · delli · dlei

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dejó" and "deli" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dejó" is a verb and "deli" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dejó" or "deli"?
"dejó" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #985 in our Spanish list, against #49,566 for "deli". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list