sólovssopaTell them apart

Quick tell: sólo is a adverb, sopa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#127
“sólo” frequency rank
#5,673
“sopa” frequency rank
5800
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sólo sopa
Definition 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. Preparación liquida y cocida junto con otros ingredientes como carne o verduras.

Where the eye mixes sólo and sopa

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

4 ch
sólo
4 ch
sopa

Look-alike desk: sólo vs sopa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sólo is [ˈsolo] while sopa is [ˈsopa]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sólo is recorded at frequency rank #127, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈsolo]. sopa is at rank #5,673, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈsopa].

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 5800, this pair ranks #312,623 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sólo vs sopa

Shared letters: os. Private to "sólo": . Private to "sopa": ap.

"sólo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sopa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sopaospa · soap · soppa · spoa · ssopa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sólo" and "sopa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sólo" is an adverb and "sopa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sólo" or "sopa"?
"sólo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #127 in our Spanish list, against #5,673 for "sopa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sólo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sopa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #312,623 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sólo" and "sopa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sila vs sopa". 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 #312,623 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