diesvsdiezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dies is a noun, diez is a num, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dies” is a noun and “diez” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,035
“dies” frequency rank
#806
“diez” frequency rank
37841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dies diez
Definition Forma del plural de dia Nueve y uno.

Where the eye mixes dies and diez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dies and diez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
dies
4 ch
diez

Visual trap between dies and diez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dies is [ˈdi.əs] while diez is [ˈd̪jes]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “dies” becomes z in “diez”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs num), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dies is recorded at frequency rank #37,035, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdi.əs]. diez is at rank #806, tagged as anum, pronounced [ˈd̪jes].

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 37841, this pair ranks #173,192 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dies vs diez

Shared letters: dei. Private to "dies": s. Private to "diez": z.

"dies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "diez" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dies ← ddies · diess · ides
  • diez ← ddiez · deiz · diezz · dize · idez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dies" for "diez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dies" is a noun and "diez" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "dies" or "diez" show up more?
"diez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #806 in our Spanish list, against #37,035 for "dies". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "diez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,192 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dies" and "diez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dies vs divo". 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 #173,192 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