señalévsseñaloTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,808
“señalé” frequency rank
#30,252
“señalo” frequency rank
77060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature señalé señalo
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de señalar. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de señalar.

Where the eye mixes señalé and señalo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. señalé and señalo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
señalé
6 ch
señalo

Visual trap between señalé and señalo

A purely visual mix-up. señalé ([seɲaˈle]) and señalo ([seˈɲalo]) 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 a single letter - é in “señalé” becomes o in “señalo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

señalé is recorded at frequency rank #46,808, classified as averb, pronounced [seɲaˈle]. señalo is at rank #30,252, tagged as averb, pronounced [seˈɲalo].

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 77060, this pair ranks #16,672 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of señalé vs señalo

Shared letters: aelsñ. Private to "señalé": é. Private to "señalo": o.

"señalé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "señalo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "señalé" for "señalo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([seɲaˈle] versus [seˈɲalo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "señalé" vs "señalo" - which ranks higher?
"señalo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,252 in our Spanish list, against #46,808 for "señalé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "señalé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "señalo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,672 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "señalé" and "señalo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seal vs señalé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #16,672 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