guanvsguysConfusable pair

Which to use

“guan” and “guys” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,044
“guan” frequency rank
#32,690
“guys” frequency rank
81734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guan guys
Definition (Cracidae) Aves gallináceas del Nuevo Mundo de los géneros Aburria, Chamaepetes, Oreophasis, Penelope, Penelopina y Pipile, de la subfamilia Penelopinae. Sobre todo la Penelope purpurascens. Forma del plural de guy ('tipos').

Where the eye mixes guan and guys

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. guan and guys follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
guan
4 ch
guys

Visual trap between guan and guys

A purely visual mix-up. guan ([ˈgwãn]) and guys (/ɡaɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guan is recorded at frequency rank #49,044, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈgwãn]. guys is at rank #32,690, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡaɪz/.

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 81734, this pair ranks #10,050 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of guan vs guys

Shared letters: gu. Private to "guan": an. Private to "guys": sy.

"guan" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "guys" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guan ← gaun · gguan · guann · guna · ugan
  • guys ← gguys · gusy · guyss · guyys · gyus · ugys

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "guan" and "guys" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈgwãn] versus /ɡaɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "guan" vs "guys" - which ranks higher?
"guys" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,690 in our Spanish list, against #49,044 for "guan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "guan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guys" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,050 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guan" and "guys" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grana vs guan". 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 #10,050 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