privavsprivadaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#30,631
“priva” frequency rank
#1,695
“privada” frequency rank
32326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature priva privada
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de privar o de privarse. Forma del femenino de privado.

Where the eye mixes priva and privada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
priva
7 ch
privada

Visual trap between priva and privada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: priva is [ˈpɾiβ̞a] while privada is [pɾiˈβ̞að̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “priva” sits inside “privada”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

priva is recorded at frequency rank #30,631, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpɾiβ̞a]. privada is at rank #1,695, tagged as anadj, pronounced [pɾiˈβ̞að̞a].

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 32326, this pair ranks #202,552 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of priva vs privada

Shared letters: aiprv. Private to "priva": -. Private to "privada": d.

"priva" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "privada" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • privapirva · ppriva · priav · priba · privva · prriva · prvia · rpiva
  • privadapirvada · pprivada · priavda · pribada · privaad · privadda · privdaa · privvada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "priva" for "privada" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "priva" is a verb and "privada" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "priva" or "privada"?
"privada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,695 in our Spanish list, against #30,631 for "priva". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "priva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "privada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,552 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "priva" and "privada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prius vs priva". 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 #202,552 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