incendiavsincendiosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: incendia is a verb, incendios is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“incendia” is a verb and “incendios” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,804
“incendia” frequency rank
#5,972
“incendios” frequency rank
45776
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incendia incendios
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de incendiar. Forma del plural de incendio.

Where the eye mixes incendia and incendios

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. incendia runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVV) against incendios's 9 (VCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
incendia
9 ch
incendios

Visual trap between incendia and incendios

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: incendia is [ĩnˈsẽn̪d̪ja] while incendios is [ĩnˈsẽn̪d̪jos]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

incendia is recorded at frequency rank #39,804, classified as averb, pronounced [ĩnˈsẽn̪d̪ja]. incendios is at rank #5,972, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ĩnˈsẽn̪d̪jos].

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 45776, this pair ranks #129,511 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of incendia vs incendios

Shared letters: cdein. Private to "incendia": a. Private to "incendios": os.

"incendia" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "incendios" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incendia ← icnendia · inccendia · incednia · incendai · incenddia · incenida · incenndia · incnedia
  • incendios ← icnendios · inccendios · incednios · incenddios · incendioss · incendiso · incendois · incenidos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "incendia" for "incendios" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "incendia" is a verb and "incendios" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "incendia" vs "incendios" - which ranks higher?
"incendios" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,972 in our Spanish list, against #39,804 for "incendia". 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 "incendia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "incendios" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,511 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incendia" and "incendios" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incendia vs incendiada". 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 #129,511 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