habidavshábilWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: habida is a participle, hábil is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“habida” is a participle and “hábil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,374
“habida” frequency rank
#11,594
“hábil” frequency rank
42968
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habida hábil
Definition Forma del femenino de habido, participio de haber. Que puede hacer muy bien algo.

Where the eye mixes habida and hábil

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
habida
5 ch
hábil

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: habida is [aˈβ̞ið̞a] while hábil is [ˈaβ̞il]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habida is recorded at frequency rank #31,374, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [aˈβ̞ið̞a]. hábil is at rank #11,594, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaβ̞il].

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 42968, this pair ranks #145,254 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of habida vs hábil

Shared letters: bhi. Private to "habida": ad. Private to "hábil": .

"habida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "hábil" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • habidaahbida · habbida · habdia · habiad · habidda · haibda · havida · hbaida

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "habida" and "hábil" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habida" is a participle and "hábil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "habida" or "hábil"?
"hábil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,594 in our Spanish list, against #31,374 for "habida". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list