pecavspegarTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#36,209
“peca” frequency rank
#6,442
“pegar” frequency rank
42651
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peca pegar
Definition Pequeña mancha de melanina en la piel. Hacer que una cosa quede adherida a otra.

Where the eye mixes peca and pegar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peca runs 4 letters (CVCV) against pegar's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
peca
5 ch
pegar

Visual trap between peca and pegar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peca is [ˈpeka] while pegar is [peˈɣ̞aɾ]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peca is recorded at frequency rank #36,209, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpeka]. pegar is at rank #6,442, tagged as averb, pronounced [peˈɣ̞aɾ].

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 42651, this pair ranks #147,012 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of peca vs pegar

Shared letters: aep. Private to "peca": c. Private to "pegar": gr.

"peca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pegar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pecaepca · pcea · peac · pecca · ppeca
  • pegarepgar · peagr · pegarr · peggar · pegra · pgear · ppegar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "peca" and "pegar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "peca" is a noun and "pegar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "peca" or "pegar" show up more?
"pegar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,442 in our Spanish list, against #36,209 for "peca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "peca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pegar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,012 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peca" and "pegar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peca 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 #147,012 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