sagevssalgoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#42,140
“sage” frequency rank
#5,349
“salgo” frequency rank
47489
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sage salgo
Definition Sabio, sensato, juicioso, prudente, acertado. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de salgar.

Where the eye mixes sage and salgo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sage runs 4 letters (CVCV) against salgo's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
sage
5 ch
salgo

Visual trap between sage and salgo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sage is [saʒ] while salgo is [ˈsalɣ̞o]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sage is recorded at frequency rank #42,140, classified as anadj, pronounced [saʒ]. salgo is at rank #5,349, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈsalɣ̞o].

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 47489, this pair ranks #119,771 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sage vs salgo

Shared letters: ags. Private to "sage": e. Private to "salgo": lo.

"sage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "salgo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sage ← asge · saeg · sagge · sgae · ssage
  • salgo ← aslgo · saglo · salggo · sallgo · salog · slago · ssalgo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sage" and "salgo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sage" is an adjective and "salgo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "sage" or "salgo" show up more?
"salgo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,349 in our Spanish list, against #42,140 for "sage". 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 "sage" and "salgo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "salgo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,771 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sage" and "salgo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sage vs sari". 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 #119,771 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