podrevsposeeTell them apart

Quick tell: podre is a adjective, posee is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#26,962
“podre” frequency rank
#2,898
“posee” frequency rank
29860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature podre posee
Definition Podrido. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de poseer.

Where the eye mixes podre and posee

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

5 ch
podre
5 ch
posee

Look-alike desk: podre vs posee

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: podre is [ˈpoð̞ɾɪ] while posee is [poˈsee]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

podre is recorded at frequency rank #26,962, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈpoð̞ɾɪ]. posee is at rank #2,898, tagged as averb, pronounced [poˈsee].

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 29860, this pair ranks #214,904 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of podre vs posee

Shared letters: eop. Private to "podre": dr. Private to "posee": s.

"podre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "posee" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • podreopdre · pdore · poddre · podrre · porde · ppodre
  • poseeopsee · pocee · poese · possee · pposee · psoee

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "podre" and "posee" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "podre" is an adjective and "posee" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "podre" vs "posee" - which ranks higher?
"posee" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,898 in our Spanish list, against #26,962 for "podre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "podre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "posee" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #214,904 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "podre" and "posee" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "podar vs podre". 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 #214,904 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