did vs dig, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“did” and “dig” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,663
“did” frequency rank: #35,991
“dig” frequency rank: 58654
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	did	dig
Definition	Pasado simple (irregular) del verbo (to) do.	Cavar, escarbar.

Where the eye mixes did and dig

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

did

3 ch

dig

Visual trap between did and dig

A purely visual mix-up. did (/dɪd/) and dig (/dɪg/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - d in “did” becomes g in “dig”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58654, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

did is recorded at frequency rank #22,663, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪd/. dig is at rank #35,991, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪg/.

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 58654, this pair ranks #65,659 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of did vs dig

Shared letters: di. Private to "did": -. Private to "dig": g.

"did" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dig" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "did" for "dig" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/dɪd/ versus /dɪg/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Spanish text, does "did" or "dig" show up more?

"did" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,663 in our Spanish list, against #35,991 for "dig". 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 "did" and "dig" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "did" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "dig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #65,659 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"did" and "dig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dig vs divo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #65,659 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.