romancevsromancesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,455
“romance” frequency rank
#21,480
“romances” frequency rank
27935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature romance romances
Definition Se dice de las lenguas que se desarrollaron durante la Edad Media a partir del latín hablado en varias zonas que fueron parte del imperio romano, como las actuales España, Francia, Italia, Portugal y Rumania. Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de subjuntivo de romanzar.

Where the eye mixes romance and romances

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. romance runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against romances's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
romance
8 ch
romances

Why the eye confuses romance with romances

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: romance is [roˈmãnse] while romances is [roˈmãnses]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “romance” sits inside “romances”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

romance is recorded at frequency rank #6,455, classified as anadj, pronounced [roˈmãnse]. romances is at rank #21,480, tagged as averb, pronounced [roˈmãnses].

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 27935, this pair ranks #224,460 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of romance vs romances

Shared letters: acemnor. Private to "romance": -. Private to "romances": s.

"romance" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "romances" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • romance ← ormance · rmoance · roamnce · romacne · romancce · romanec · romannce · romanse
  • romances ← ormances · rmoances · roamnces · romacnes · romancces · romancess · romancse · romanecs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "romance" and "romances" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "romance" is an adjective and "romances" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "romance" or "romances" show up more?
"romance" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,455 in our Spanish list, against #21,480 for "romances". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "romance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "romances" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,460 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "romance" and "romances" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "romance vs romaní". 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 #224,460 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