segurovssembróTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#335
“seguro” frequency rank
#34,777
“sembró” frequency rank
35112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seguro sembró
Definition Exento de riesgo o peligro. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de sembrar.

Where the eye mixes seguro and sembró

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. seguro (CVCVCV) and sembró (CVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
seguro
6 ch
sembró

Why the eye confuses seguro with sembró

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seguro is [seˈɣ̞uɾo] while sembró is [sẽmˈbɾo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seguro is recorded at frequency rank #335, classified as anadj, pronounced [seˈɣ̞uɾo]. sembró is at rank #34,777, tagged as averb, pronounced [sẽmˈbɾo].

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 35112, this pair ranks #187,811 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of seguro vs sembró

Shared letters: ers. Private to "seguro": gou. Private to "sembró": bmó.

"seguro" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "sembró" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seguro ← ceguro · esguro · segguro · segruo · seguor · segurro · seugro · sgeuro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seguro" and "sembró" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seguro" is an adjective and "sembró" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "seguro" or "sembró" show up more?
"seguro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #335 in our Spanish list, against #34,777 for "sembró". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "seguro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sembró" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,811 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seguro" and "sembró" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sembró vs separo". 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 #187,811 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