señalévssingleWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: señalé is a verb, single is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#46,808
“señalé” frequency rank
#10,761
“single” frequency rank
57569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature señalé single
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de señalar. Dícese de cualquier cabo que laborea sencillo, como la braza, el amantillo, etc. cuando uno de sus chicotes está hecho firme en el peñol de la verga.

Where the eye mixes señalé and single

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

6 ch
señalé
6 ch
single

Visual trap between señalé and single

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: señalé is [seɲaˈle] while single is [ˈsĩŋgle]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57569, 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]. single is at rank #10,761, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈsĩŋgle].

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 57569, this pair ranks #69,975 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of señalé vs single

Shared letters: els. Private to "señalé": aéñ. Private to "single": gin.

"señalé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "single" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singlecingle · isngle · signle · singel · singgle · singlle · sinlge · sinngle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "señalé" and "single" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "señalé" is a verb and "single" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "señalé" or "single" show up more?
"single" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,761 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.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "señalé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "single" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,975 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "señalé" and "single" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seal vs señalé". 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 #69,975 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