spy vs su, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“spy” is a noun and “su” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,092
“spy” frequency rank: #20
“su” frequency rank: 48112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	spy	su
Definition	Espía.	Adjetivo posesivo de la tercera persona; de él, de ella, de ellos, de ellas.

Where the eye mixes spy and su

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

spy

2 ch

Visual trap between spy and su

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: spy is /spaɪ/ while su is [su]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spy is recorded at frequency rank #48,092, classified as anoun, pronounced /spaɪ/. su is at rank #20, tagged as anadj, pronounced [su].

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 48112, this pair ranks #116,267 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of spy vs su

Shared letters: s. Private to "spy": py. Private to "su": u.

"spy" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "su" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "spy" and "su" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

In ordinary Spanish text, does "spy" or "su" show up more?

"su" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20 in our Spanish list, against #48,092 for "spy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "spy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "su" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #116,267 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"spy" and "su" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sei vs spy". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #116,267 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.