errevseseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,302
“erre” frequency rank
#84
“ese” frequency rank
45386
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erre ese
Definition Nombre de la letra r, decimonovena del alfabeto español y decimoctava del orden latino internacional, sobre todo referida a su sonido fuerte.. Nombre de la letra s.

Where the eye mixes erre and ese

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

4 ch
erre
3 ch
ese

Visual trap between erre and ese

A purely visual mix-up. erre ([ˈere]) and ese ([ˈese]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erre is recorded at frequency rank #45,302, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈere]. ese is at rank #84, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈese].

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 45386, this pair ranks #131,734 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of erre vs ese

Shared letters: e. Private to "erre": r. Private to "ese": s.

"erre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "ese" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erreerer · rere

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "erre" and "ese" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈere] versus [ˈese]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "erre" vs "ese" - which ranks higher?
"ese" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #84 in our Spanish list, against #45,302 for "erre". 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 "erre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ese" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,734 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erre" and "ese" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erre vs Erro". 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 #131,734 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