dueñosvsdurosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dueños is a noun, duros is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dueños” is a noun and “duros” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,838
“dueños” frequency rank
#5,716
“duros” frequency rank
9554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dueños duros
Definition Forma del plural de dueño. Forma del masculino plural de duro.

Where the eye mixes dueños and duros

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
dueños
5 ch
duros

Look-alike desk: dueños vs duros

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dueños is [ˈd̪weɲos] while duros is [ˈd̪uɾos]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dueños is recorded at frequency rank #3,838, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪weɲos]. duros is at rank #5,716, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈd̪uɾos].

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 9554, this pair ranks #301,585 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dueños vs duros

Shared letters: dosu. Private to "dueños": . Private to "duros": r.

"dueños" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "duros" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • durosdduros · druos · duors · duross · durros · durso · udros

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dueños" and "duros" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dueños" is a noun and "duros" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "dueños" or "duros" show up more?
"dueños" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,838 in our Spanish list, against #5,716 for "duros". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dueños" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duros" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #301,585 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dueños" and "duros" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dubois vs duros". 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 #301,585 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