soli vs sólo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“soli” is a noun and “sólo” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,459
“soli” frequency rank: #127
“sólo” frequency rank: 44586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	soli	sólo
Definition	Codorniz.	Grafía alternativa de solo (adverbio). Cada vez que deba entenderse como equivalente de solamente y sea posible la confusión con el adjetivo homónimo, es optativo tildar la palabra para desambiguar.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set soli and sólo apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

soli

4 ch

sólo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: soli is /ˈso.li/ while sólo is [ˈsolo]. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soli is recorded at frequency rank #44,459, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈso.li/. sólo is at rank #127, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈsolo].

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 44586, this pair ranks #136,225 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of soli vs sólo

Shared letters: los. Private to "soli": i. Private to "sólo": ó.

"soli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "sólo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

soli ← osli · sloi · soil · solli · ssoli

Frequency comparison

soli#44,459

sólo#127

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "soli" and "sólo" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "soli" is a noun and "sólo" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "soli" or "sólo"?

"sólo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #127 in our Spanish list, against #44,459 for "soli". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering soli vs sólo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “soli”; for an adverb, it's “sólo”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “soli” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable