despiertasvsdespiertosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: despiertas is a verb, despiertos is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“despiertas” is a verb and “despiertos” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,403
“despiertas” frequency rank
#22,324
“despiertos” frequency rank
48727
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature despiertas despiertos
Definition Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de indicativo de despertar o de despertarse. Forma del plural de despierto.

Where the eye mixes despiertas and despiertos

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

10 ch
despiertas
10 ch
despiertos

Look-alike desk: despiertas vs despiertos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: despiertas is [d̪esˈpjeɾt̪as] while despiertos is [d̪esˈpjeɾt̪os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “despiertas” becomes o in “despiertos”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

despiertas is recorded at frequency rank #26,403, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪esˈpjeɾt̪as]. despiertos is at rank #22,324, tagged as anadj, pronounced [d̪esˈpjeɾt̪os].

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 48727, this pair ranks #112,873 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of despiertas vs despiertos

Shared letters: deiprst. Private to "despiertas": a. Private to "despiertos": o.

"despiertas" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC  ·  "despiertos" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • despiertas ← ddespiertas · depsiertas · desipertas · despeirtas · despierats · despierrtas · despiertass · despiertsa
  • despiertos ← ddespiertos · depsiertos · desipertos · despeirtos · despierots · despierrtos · despiertoss · despiertso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "despiertas" for "despiertos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "despiertas" is a verb and "despiertos" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "despiertas" or "despiertos"?
"despiertos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,324 in our Spanish list, against #26,403 for "despiertas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "despiertas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "despiertos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,873 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "despiertas" and "despiertos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "despiertas vs despiertes". 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 #112,873 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