sabevsseeTell them apart

Which to use

“sabe” and “see” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#357
“sabe” frequency rank
#10,071
“see” frequency rank
10428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sabe see
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de saber. Ver.

Where the eye mixes sabe and see

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sabe
3 ch
see

Visual trap between sabe and see

A purely visual mix-up. sabe ([ˈsaβ̞e]) and see (/siː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sabe is recorded at frequency rank #357, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈsaβ̞e]. see is at rank #10,071, tagged as averb, pronounced /siː/.

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 10428, this pair ranks #298,648 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sabe vs see

Shared letters: es. Private to "sabe": ab. Private to "see": -.

"sabe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "see" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sabeasbe · sabbe · saeb · sbae · ssabe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sabe" and "see" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsaβ̞e] versus /siː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sabe" or "see"?
"sabe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #357 in our Spanish list, against #10,071 for "see". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sabe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "see" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #298,648 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sabe" and "see" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "see vs stem". 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 #298,648 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