desarrollanvsdesarrollosTell them apart

Quick tell: desarrollan is a verb, desarrollos is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“desarrollan” is a verb and “desarrollos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,414
“desarrollan” frequency rank
#13,222
“desarrollos” frequency rank
20636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desarrollan desarrollos
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de desarrollar o de desarrollarse. Forma del plural de desarrollo.

Where the eye mixes desarrollan and desarrollos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. desarrollan and desarrollos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
desarrollan
11 ch
desarrollos

Why the eye confuses desarrollan with desarrollos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desarrollan is [d̪esaˈroʝãn] while desarrollos is [d̪esaˈroʝos]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desarrollan is recorded at frequency rank #7,414, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪esaˈroʝãn]. desarrollos is at rank #13,222, tagged as anoun, pronounced [d̪esaˈroʝos].

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 20636, this pair ranks #258,446 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of desarrollan vs desarrollos

Shared letters: adelors. Private to "desarrollan": n. Private to "desarrollos": -.

"desarrollan" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVC  ·  "desarrollos" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desarrollan ← ddesarrollan · deasrrollan · desarollan · desarorllan · desarrlolan · desarrolaln · desarrolan · desarrollann
  • desarrollos ← ddesarrollos · deasrrollos · desarollos · desarorllos · desarrlolos · desarrolloss · desarrollso · desarrolols

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "desarrollan" for "desarrollos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "desarrollan" is a verb and "desarrollos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "desarrollan" or "desarrollos" show up more?
"desarrollan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,414 in our Spanish list, against #13,222 for "desarrollos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "desarrollan" and "desarrollos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "desarrollan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desarrollos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,446 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desarrollan" and "desarrollos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desarrollan vs desarrollarán". 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 #258,446 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