pillanvspillasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pillan is a verb, pillas is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pillan” is a verb and “pillas” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,492
“pillan” frequency rank
#34,268
“pillas” frequency rank
65760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pillan pillas
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pillar. Forma del femenino plural de pillo₁.

Where the eye mixes pillan and pillas

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

6 ch
pillan
6 ch
pillas

Look-alike desk: pillan vs pillas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pillan is [ˈpiʝãn] while pillas is [ˈpiʝas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “pillan” becomes s in “pillas”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pillan is recorded at frequency rank #31,492, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpiʝãn]. pillas is at rank #34,268, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈpiʝas].

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 65760, this pair ranks #41,684 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pillan vs pillas

Shared letters: ailp. Private to "pillan": n. Private to "pillas": s.

"pillan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pillas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pillan ← ipllan · pilaln · pilan · pillann · pillna · plilan · ppillan
  • pillas ← ipllas · pilals · pillass · pillsa · plilas · ppillas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pillan" and "pillas" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pillan" is a verb and "pillas" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pillan" or "pillas" show up more?
"pillan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,492 in our Spanish list, against #34,268 for "pillas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pillan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pillas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,684 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pillan" and "pillas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillas vs pillen". 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 #41,684 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