minerosvsminutosTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,598
“mineros” frequency rank
#488
“minutos” frequency rank
8086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mineros minutos
Definition Forma del plural de minero. Forma del plural de minuto.

Where the eye mixes mineros and minutos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mineros and minutos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
mineros
7 ch
minutos

Why the eye confuses mineros with minutos

A purely visual mix-up. mineros ([miˈneɾos]) and minutos ([miˈnut̪os]) 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 8086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mineros is recorded at frequency rank #7,598, classified as anoun, pronounced [miˈneɾos]. minutos is at rank #488, tagged as anoun, pronounced [miˈnut̪os].

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 8086, this pair ranks #306,044 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mineros vs minutos

Shared letters: imnos. Private to "mineros": er. Private to "minutos": tu.

"mineros" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "minutos" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mineros ← imneros · mienros · mineors · mineross · minerros · minerso · minneros · minreos
  • minutos ← imnutos · minnutos · mintuos · minuots · minutoss · minutso · minuttos · miuntos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mineros" for "minutos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([miˈneɾos] versus [miˈnut̪os]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mineros" or "minutos" show up more?
"minutos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #488 in our Spanish list, against #7,598 for "mineros". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "mineros" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "minutos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #306,044 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mineros" and "minutos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mineros vs monteros". 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 #306,044 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