sacudevssacudirTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,149
“sacude” frequency rank
#26,611
“sacudir” frequency rank
47760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacude sacudir
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de sacudir o de sacudirse. Mover de lado a lado rápida y repetidamente, con cierta violencia.

Where the eye mixes sacude and sacudir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sacude runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against sacudir's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
sacude
7 ch
sacudir

Why the eye confuses sacude with sacudir

A purely visual mix-up. sacude ([saˈkuð̞e]) and sacudir ([sakuˈð̞iɾ]) 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 47760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sacude is recorded at frequency rank #21,149, classified as averb, pronounced [saˈkuð̞e]. sacudir is at rank #26,611, tagged as averb, pronounced [sakuˈð̞iɾ].

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 47760, this pair ranks #118,275 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sacude vs sacudir

Shared letters: acdsu. Private to "sacude": e. Private to "sacudir": ir.

"sacude" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "sacudir" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sacude ← ascude · saccude · sacdue · sacudde · sacued · saucde · scaude · ssacude
  • sacudir ← ascudir · saccudir · sacduir · sacuddir · sacudirr · sacudri · sacuidr · saucdir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sacude" for "sacudir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([saˈkuð̞e] versus [sakuˈð̞iɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sacude" or "sacudir"?
"sacude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,149 in our Spanish list, against #26,611 for "sacudir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sacude" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sacudir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,275 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sacude" and "sacudir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sácate vs sacude". 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 #118,275 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