quierevsquietaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#228
“quiere” frequency rank
#21,124
“quieta” frequency rank
21352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quiere quieta
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de querer. Forma del femenino singular de quieto.

Where the eye mixes quiere and quieta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
quiere
6 ch
quieta

Visual trap between quiere and quieta

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quiere is [ˈkjeɾe] while quieta is [ˈkjet̪a]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quiere is recorded at frequency rank #228, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkjeɾe]. quieta is at rank #21,124, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkjet̪a].

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 21352, this pair ranks #255,315 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quiere vs quieta

Shared letters: eiqu. Private to "quiere": r. Private to "quieta": at.

"quiere" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV  ·  "quieta" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quiereqiuere · qquiere · queire · quieer · quierre · quiree · uqiere
  • quietaqiueta · qquieta · queita · quieat · quietta · quitea · uqieta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "quiere" for "quieta" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "quiere" is a verb and "quieta" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "quiere" or "quieta" show up more?
"quiere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #228 in our Spanish list, against #21,124 for "quieta". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "quiere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quieta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,315 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quiere" and "quieta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quieta vs quiste". 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 #255,315 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