fallarvsfallosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fallar is a verb, fallos is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fallar” is a verb and “fallos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,135
“fallar” frequency rank
#8,801
“fallos” frequency rank
18936
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fallar fallos
Definition Variante obsoleta de hallar. Forma del plural de fallo.

Where the eye mixes fallar and fallos

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

6 ch
fallar
6 ch
fallos

Visual trap between fallar and fallos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fallar is [faˈʝaɾ] while fallos is [ˈfaʝos]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fallar is recorded at frequency rank #10,135, classified as averb, pronounced [faˈʝaɾ]. fallos is at rank #8,801, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaʝos].

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 18936, this pair ranks #265,846 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fallar vs fallos

Shared letters: afl. Private to "fallar": r. Private to "fallos": os.

"fallar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "fallos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fallarafllar · falalr · falar · fallarr · fallra · ffallar · flalar
  • fallosafllos · falloss · falols · ffallos · flalos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fallar" and "fallos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fallar" is a verb and "fallos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "fallar" or "fallos" show up more?
"fallos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,801 in our Spanish list, against #10,135 for "fallar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fallar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fallos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,846 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fallar" and "fallos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fallar vs falsear". 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 #265,846 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