pocovsposeoTell them apart

Quick tell: poco is a adverb, poseo is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#115
“poco” frequency rank
#30,195
“poseo” frequency rank
30310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poco poseo
Definition En menor cantidad de lo que se hubiera esperado, en intensidad baja, o en menor grado. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de poseer.

Where the eye mixes poco and poseo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
poco
5 ch
poseo

Visual trap between poco and poseo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poco is [ˈpoko] while poseo is [poˈseo]. 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 (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poco is recorded at frequency rank #115, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈpoko]. poseo is at rank #30,195, tagged as averb, pronounced [poˈseo].

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 30310, this pair ranks #212,610 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poco vs poseo

Shared letters: op. Private to "poco": c. Private to "poseo": es.

"poco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "poseo" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pocoopco · pcoo · pocco · pooc · ppoco
  • poseoopseo · poceo · poeso · posoe · posseo · pposeo · psoeo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "poco" and "poseo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "poco" is an adverb and "poseo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "poco" or "poseo" show up more?
"poco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #115 in our Spanish list, against #30,195 for "poseo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "poco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poseo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,610 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poco" and "poseo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Perseo vs poseo". 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 #212,610 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