QuerovsquisoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Quero is a name, quiso is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Quero” is a name and “quiso” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,211
“Quero” frequency rank
#2,364
“quiso” frequency rank
45575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Quero quiso
Definition Apellido. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de querer.

Where the eye mixes Quero and quiso

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

5 ch
Quero
5 ch
quiso

Why the eye confuses Quero with quiso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Quero is [ˈkeɾo] while quiso is [ˈkiso]. 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 (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Quero is recorded at frequency rank #43,211, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈkeɾo]. quiso is at rank #2,364, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkiso].

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 45575, this pair ranks #130,673 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Quero vs quiso

Shared letters: oqu. Private to "Quero": er. Private to "quiso": is.

"Quero" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "quiso" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Queroqeuro · qquero · queor · querro · qureo · uqero
  • quisoqiuso · qquiso · quios · quisso · qusio · uqiso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Quero" for "quiso" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Quero" is a name and "quiso" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Quero" vs "quiso" - which ranks higher?
"quiso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,364 in our Spanish list, against #43,211 for "Quero". 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 "Quero" and "quiso" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Quero" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quiso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,673 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Quero" and "quiso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Quero vs querré". 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 #130,673 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