sabevsskateWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sabe is a verb, skate is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sabe” is a verb and “skate” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#357
“sabe” frequency rank
#26,620
“skate” frequency rank
26977
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes sabe and skate

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

4 ch
sabe
5 ch
skate

Visual trap between sabe and skate

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sabe is [ˈsaβ̞e] while skate is [esˈkejt̪]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sabe is recorded at frequency rank #357, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈsaβ̞e]. skate is at rank #26,620, tagged as anoun, pronounced [esˈkejt̪].

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 26977, this pair ranks #229,001 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sabe vs skate

Shared letters: aes. Private to "sabe": b. Private to "skate": kt.

"sabe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "skate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sabeasbe · sabbe · saeb · sbae · ssabe
  • skateksate · sakte · skaet · skatte · skkate · sktae · sskate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sabe" and "skate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sabe" is a verb and "skate" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sabe" vs "skate" - which ranks higher?
"sabe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #357 in our Spanish list, against #26,620 for "skate". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sabe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "skate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,001 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sabe" and "skate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sácate vs skate". 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 #229,001 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