mercaderesvsmercaderíasTell them apart

Which to use

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

#22,771
“mercaderes” frequency rank
#37,214
“mercaderías” frequency rank
59985
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mercaderes mercaderías
Definition Forma del plural de mercader. Forma del plural de mercadería.

Where the eye mixes mercaderes and mercaderías

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. mercaderes runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCVC) against mercaderías's 11 (CVCCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
mercaderes
11 ch
mercaderías

Look-alike desk: mercaderes vs mercaderías

A purely visual mix-up. mercaderes ([meɾkaˈð̞eɾes]) and mercaderías ([meɾkað̞eˈɾias]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59985, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mercaderes is recorded at frequency rank #22,771, classified as anoun, pronounced [meɾkaˈð̞eɾes]. mercaderías is at rank #37,214, tagged as anoun, pronounced [meɾkað̞eˈɾias].

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 59985, this pair ranks #60,570 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mercaderes vs mercaderías

Shared letters: acdemrs. Private to "mercaderes": -. Private to "mercaderías": í.

"mercaderes" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC  ·  "mercaderías" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mercaderesemrcaderes · mecraderes · meracderes · mercadderes · mercadeers · mercaderess · mercaderres · mercaderse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mercaderes" and "mercaderías" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([meɾkaˈð̞eɾes] versus [meɾkað̞eˈɾias]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mercaderes" or "mercaderías"?
"mercaderes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,771 in our Spanish list, against #37,214 for "mercaderías". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mercaderes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mercaderías" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,570 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mercaderes" and "mercaderías" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mercader vs mercaderes". 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 #60,570 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