Which to use
“despidió” is a verb and “despidos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,226
- “despidió” frequency rank
- #13,019
- “despidos” frequency rank
- 26245
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | despidió | despidos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de despedir o de despedirse. | Forma del plural de despido. |
Where the eye mixes despidió and despidos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. despidió (CVCCVCVV) and despidos (CVCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: despidió vs despidos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: despidió is [d̪espiˈð̞jo] while despidos is [d̪esˈpið̞os]. 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 26245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
despidió is recorded at frequency rank #13,226, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪espiˈð̞jo]. despidos is at rank #13,019, tagged as anoun, pronounced [d̪esˈpið̞os].
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 26245, this pair ranks #232,607 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of despidió vs despidos
Shared letters: deips. Private to "despidió": ó. Private to "despidos": o.
"despidió" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV · "despidos" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- despidos ← ddespidos · depsidos · desipdos · despdios · despiddos · despidoss · despidso · despiods
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "despidió" for "despidos" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "despidió" or "despidos" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "despidió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "despidos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,607 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "despidió" and "despidos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "despidos vs despojos". 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 #232,607 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.