parovspocoTell them apart

Quick tell: paro is a noun, poco is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“paro” is a noun and “poco” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,678
“paro” frequency rank
#115
“poco” frequency rank
2793
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paro poco
Definition Interrupción o alteración que los trabajadores hacen de su actividad para protestar contra las condiciones en las que la desempeñan. En menor cantidad de lo que se hubiera esperado, en intensidad baja, o en menor grado.

Where the eye mixes paro and poco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
paro
4 ch
poco

Visual trap between paro and poco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paro is [ˈpaɾo] while poco is [ˈpoko]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2793, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paro is recorded at frequency rank #2,678, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaɾo]. poco is at rank #115, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈpoko].

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 2793, this pair ranks #319,623 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of paro vs poco

Shared letters: op. Private to "paro": ar. Private to "poco": c.

"paro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "poco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paroapro · paor · parro · pparo · prao
  • pocoopco · pcoo · pocco · pooc · ppoco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "paro" for "poco" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "paro" is a noun and "poco" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "paro" or "poco"?
"poco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #115 in our Spanish list, against #2,678 for "paro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "paro" and "poco" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #319,623 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paro" and "poco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paro vs PRC". 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 #319,623 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