guíavsguíasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,345
“guía” frequency rank
#8,810
“guías” frequency rank
11155
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guía guías
Definition Cualquier cosa, material o inmaterial, que sirve para orientarse (indicar la dirección, el camino, la manera corrrecta, etc.). Cuerdas con que se dirigen o gobiernan los animales de tiro (caballos, perros, etc.) en ciertos vehículos.

Where the eye mixes guía and guías

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

4 ch
guía
5 ch
guías

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. guía ([ˈgia]) and guías ([ˈgias]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “guía” sits inside “guías”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guía is recorded at frequency rank #2,345, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈgia]. guías is at rank #8,810, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈgias].

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 11155, this pair ranks #296,085 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of guía vs guías

Shared letters: aguí. Private to "guía": -. Private to "guías": s.

"guía" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "guías" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "guía" and "guías" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈgia] versus [ˈgias]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "guía" or "guías"?
"guía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,345 in our Spanish list, against #8,810 for "guías". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "guía" and "guías". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "guía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guías" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #296,085 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guía" and "guías" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guan vs guías". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list