extrañevsextrañoTell them apart

Quick tell: extrañe is a verb, extraño is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“extrañe” is a verb and “extraño” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,788
“extrañe” frequency rank
#1,289
“extraño” frequency rank
33077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature extrañe extraño
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de extrañar o de extrañarse. Dicho de una persona, que es ajeno a nuestra familia, grupo social, nación.

Where the eye mixes extrañe and extraño

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

7 ch
extrañe
7 ch
extraño

Look-alike desk: extrañe vs extraño

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: extrañe is [eksˈt̪ɾaɲe] while extraño is [eksˈt̪ɾaɲo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “extrañe” becomes o in “extraño”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

extrañe is recorded at frequency rank #31,788, classified as averb, pronounced [eksˈt̪ɾaɲe]. extraño is at rank #1,289, tagged as anadj, pronounced [eksˈt̪ɾaɲo].

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 33077, this pair ranks #198,703 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of extrañe vs extraño

Shared letters: aertxñ. Private to "extrañe": -. Private to "extraño": o.

"extrañe" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "extraño" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "extrañe" for "extraño" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "extrañe" is a verb and "extraño" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "extrañe" or "extraño"?
"extraño" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,289 in our Spanish list, against #31,788 for "extrañe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "extrañe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "extraño" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #198,703 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "extrañe" and "extraño" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entrase vs extrañe". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #198,703 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