grasovsgravaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: graso is a adjective, grava is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#36,072
“graso” frequency rank
#23,800
“grava” frequency rank
59872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature graso grava
Definition Propio o relacionado con la grasa. Piedra machacada (o la arena más gruesa, que la mayor es de río) con que se cubre y allana el piso de los caminos, las calles de los jardines, etc.

Where the eye mixes graso and grava

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. graso and grava follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
graso
5 ch
grava

Visual trap between graso and grava

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: graso is [ˈgɾaso] while grava is [ˈgɾaβ̞a]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

graso is recorded at frequency rank #36,072, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈgɾaso]. grava is at rank #23,800, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈgɾaβ̞a].

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 59872, this pair ranks #61,027 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of graso vs grava

Shared letters: agr. Private to "graso": os. Private to "grava": v.

"graso" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "grava" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • graso ← garso · ggraso · graos · grraso · grsao · rgaso
  • grava ← garva · ggrava · graav · gravva · grrava · grvaa · rgava

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "graso" for "grava" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "graso" is an adjective and "grava" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "graso" or "grava"?
"grava" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,800 in our Spanish list, against #36,072 for "graso". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "graso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grava" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,027 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "graso" and "grava" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graso vs gros". 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 #61,027 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