estovsevitóConfusable pair

Quick tell: esto is a pronoun, evitó is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“esto” is a pronoun and “evitó” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#66
“esto” frequency rank
#16,576
“evitó” frequency rank
16642
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature esto evitó
Definition Empleado para indicar una cosa cercana en espacio o tiempo. Forma del neutro de este. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de evitar.

Where the eye mixes esto and evitó

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

4 ch
esto
5 ch
evitó

Look-alike desk: esto vs evitó

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: esto is [ˈest̪o] while evitó is [eβ̞iˈt̪o]. 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 (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

esto is recorded at frequency rank #66, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈest̪o]. evitó is at rank #16,576, tagged as averb, pronounced [eβ̞iˈt̪o].

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 16642, this pair ranks #275,336 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of esto vs evitó

Shared letters: et. Private to "esto": os. Private to "evitó": ivó.

"esto" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "evitó" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • estoesot · essto · estto · etso · seto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "esto" for "evitó" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "esto" is a pronoun and "evitó" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "esto" or "evitó"?
"esto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #66 in our Spanish list, against #16,576 for "evitó". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "esto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "evitó" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,336 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "esto" and "evitó" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "evitó vs exit". 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 #275,336 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