festejosvsfestivosTell them apart

Quick tell: festejos is a noun, festivos is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“festejos” is a noun and “festivos” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,605
“festejos” frequency rank
#19,113
“festivos” frequency rank
31718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature festejos festivos
Definition Forma del plural de festejo. Forma del plural de festivo.

Where the eye mixes festejos and festivos

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

8 ch
festejos
8 ch
festivos

Visual trap between festejos and festivos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: festejos is [fesˈt̪exos] while festivos is [fesˈt̪iβ̞os]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

festejos is recorded at frequency rank #12,605, classified as anoun, pronounced [fesˈt̪exos]. festivos is at rank #19,113, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fesˈt̪iβ̞os].

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 31718, this pair ranks #205,672 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of festejos vs festivos

Shared letters: efost. Private to "festejos": j. Private to "festivos": iv.

"festejos" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "festivos" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • festejos ← efstejos · fesetjos · fesstejos · festejjos · festejoss · festejso · festeojs · festjeos
  • festivos ← efstivos · fesitvos · fesstivos · festibos · festiovs · festivoss · festivso · festivvos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "festejos" for "festivos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "festejos" is a noun and "festivos" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "festejos" or "festivos" show up more?
"festejos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,605 in our Spanish list, against #19,113 for "festivos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "festejos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "festivos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,672 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "festejos" and "festivos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "festivos vs furtivos". 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 #205,672 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