Which to use
“despacio” is an adverb and “despidió” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,941
- “despacio” frequency rank
- #13,226
- “despidió” frequency rank
- 22167
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | despacio | despidió |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Que procede lentamente. | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de despedir o de despedirse. |
Where the eye mixes despacio and despidió
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. despacio and despidió follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses despacio with despidió
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: despacio is [d̪esˈpasjo] while despidió is [d̪espiˈð̞jo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
despacio is recorded at frequency rank #8,941, classified as anadv, pronounced [d̪esˈpasjo]. despidió is at rank #13,226, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪espiˈð̞jo].
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 22167, this pair ranks #251,601 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of despacio vs despidió
Shared letters: deips. Private to "despacio": aco. Private to "despidió": ó.
"despacio" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV · "despidió" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- despacio ← ddespacio · depsacio · desapcio · despaccio · despacoi · despaico · despasio · despcaio
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "despacio" for "despidió" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "despacio" or "despidió" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "despacio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "despidió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #251,601 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "despacio" and "despidió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "despedí vs despidió". 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 #251,601 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.