determinavsdeterminadoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,415
“determina” frequency rank
#3,911
“determinado” frequency rank
11326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature determina determinado
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de determinar. Alguien o algo en particular.

Where the eye mixes determina and determinado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
determina
11 ch
determinado

Look-alike desk: determina vs determinado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: determina is [d̪et̪eɾˈmina] while determinado is [d̪et̪eɾmiˈnað̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “determina” sits inside “determinado”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

determina is recorded at frequency rank #7,415, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪et̪eɾˈmina]. determinado is at rank #3,911, tagged as anadj, pronounced [d̪et̪eɾmiˈnað̞o].

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 11326, this pair ranks #295,501 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of determina vs determinado

Shared letters: adeimnrt. Private to "determina": -. Private to "determinado": o.

"determina" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "determinado" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • determinaddetermina · deetrmina · detemrina · deterimna · determian · determinna · determmina · determnia
  • determinadoddeterminado · deetrminado · detemrinado · deterimnado · determiando · determinaddo · determinaod · determindao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "determina" and "determinado" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "determina" is a verb and "determinado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "determina" or "determinado"?
"determinado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,911 in our Spanish list, against #7,415 for "determina". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "determina" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "determinado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #295,501 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "determina" and "determinado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "determina vs determinen". 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 #295,501 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