Which to use
“desafía” is a verb and “desafíos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,749
- “desafía” frequency rank
- #7,704
- “desafíos” frequency rank
- 31453
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | desafía | desafíos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de desafiar. | Forma del plural de desafío. |
Where the eye mixes desafía and desafíos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. desafía runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against desafíos's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: desafía vs desafíos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desafía is [d̪esaˈfia] while desafíos is [d̪esaˈfios]. 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 31453, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
desafía is recorded at frequency rank #23,749, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪esaˈfia]. desafíos is at rank #7,704, tagged as anoun, pronounced [d̪esaˈfios].
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 31453, this pair ranks #207,010 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of desafía vs desafíos
Shared letters: adefsí. Private to "desafía": -. Private to "desafíos": o.
"desafía" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "desafíos" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "desafía" and "desafíos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "desafía" or "desafíos" show up more?
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 "desafía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "desafíos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #207,010 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "desafía" and "desafíos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demasía vs desafía". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #207,010 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.