saysvssuyoConfusable pair

Quick tell: says is a verb, suyo is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“says” is a verb and “suyo” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,209
“says” frequency rank
#2,426
“suyo” frequency rank
48635
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature says suyo
Definition Presente para la tercera personal del singular del verbo say (decir). Pronombre posesivo de tercera persona en género masculino y femenino y ambos números singular y plural.

Where the eye mixes says and suyo

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

4 ch
says
4 ch
suyo

Why the eye confuses says with suyo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: says is /sɛz/ while suyo is [ˈsuʝo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48635, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

says is recorded at frequency rank #46,209, classified as averb, pronounced /sɛz/. suyo is at rank #2,426, tagged as apron, pronounced [ˈsuʝo].

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 48635, this pair ranks #113,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of says vs suyo

Shared letters: sy. Private to "says": a. Private to "suyo": ou.

"says" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "suyo" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saysasys · sasy · sayss · sayys · ssays · syas
  • suyossuyo · suoy · suyyo · syuo · usyo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "says" for "suyo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "says" is a verb and "suyo" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "says" or "suyo" show up more?
"suyo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,426 in our Spanish list, against #46,209 for "says". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "says" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suyo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #113,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "says" and "suyo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "says vs sous". 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 #113,364 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