escribirvsescribísTell them apart

Which to use

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

#964
“escribir” frequency rank
#40,814
“escribís” frequency rank
41778
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature escribir escribís
Definition Utilizar letras o signos grabados sobre una superficie para representar las palabras. Segunda persona del singular (vos) del presente de indicativo de escribir o de escribirse.

Where the eye mixes escribir and escribís

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. escribir and escribís follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
escribir
8 ch
escribís

Visual trap between escribir and escribís

A purely visual mix-up. escribir ([eskɾiˈβ̞iɾ]) and escribís ([eskɾiˈβ̞is]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41778, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

escribir is recorded at frequency rank #964, classified as averb, pronounced [eskɾiˈβ̞iɾ]. escribís is at rank #40,814, tagged as averb, pronounced [eskɾiˈβ̞is].

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 41778, this pair ranks #151,840 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of escribir vs escribís

Shared letters: bceirs. Private to "escribir": -. Private to "escribís": í.

"escribir" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC  ·  "escribís" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • escribir ← ecsribir · esccribir · escirbir · escrbiir · escribbir · escribirr · escribri · escriibr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "escribir" and "escribís" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([eskɾiˈβ̞iɾ] versus [eskɾiˈβ̞is]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "escribir" or "escribís" show up more?
"escribir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #964 in our Spanish list, against #40,814 for "escribís". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "escribir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "escribís" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,840 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "escribir" and "escribís" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "escribirse vs escribís". 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 #151,840 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