delavsdigaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dela is a contraction, diga is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dela” is a contraction and “diga” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,645
“dela” frequency rank
#1,137
“diga” frequency rank
21782
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dela diga
Definition Contracción de la preposición de y el artículo la Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de decir.

Where the eye mixes dela and diga

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dela
4 ch
diga

Look-alike desk: dela vs diga

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dela is /ˈde.la/ while diga is [ˈd̪iɣ̞a]. 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 (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dela is recorded at frequency rank #20,645, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.la/. diga is at rank #1,137, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪iɣ̞a].

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 21782, this pair ranks #253,365 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dela vs diga

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dela": el. Private to "diga": gi.

"dela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "diga" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deladdela · dlea · edla
  • digaddiga · dgia · diag · digga · idga

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dela" and "diga" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dela" is a contraction and "diga" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dela" vs "diga" - which ranks higher?
"diga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,137 in our Spanish list, against #20,645 for "dela". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "diga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,365 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dela" and "diga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dela 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 #253,365 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