díavsduWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: día is a noun, du is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“día” is a noun and “du” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#76
“día” frequency rank
#5,609
“du” frequency rank
5685
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature día du
Definition Tiempo que tarda la Tierra en dar una vuelta alrededor de su eje, equivalente a 24 horas. Tú (pronombre de segunda persona singular familiar o informal)

Where the eye mixes día and du

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
día
2 ch
du

Visual trap between día and du

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: día is [ˈd̪ia] while du is [duː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5685, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

día is recorded at frequency rank #76, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ia]. du is at rank #5,609, tagged as apron, pronounced [duː].

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 5685, this pair ranks #312,949 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of día vs du

Shared letters: d. Private to "día": . Private to "du": u.

"día" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "du" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "día" for "du" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "día" is a noun and "du" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "día" or "du"?
"día" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our Spanish list, against #5,609 for "du". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "día" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "du" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #312,949 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "día" and "du" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deux vs du". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #312,949 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