súbitavssumidaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: súbita is a adjective, sumida is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“súbita” is an adjective and “sumida” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,831
“súbita” frequency rank
#33,865
“sumida” frequency rank
59696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature súbita sumida
Definition Forma del femenino singular de súbito. Forma del femenino de sumido, participio de sumir.

Where the eye mixes súbita and sumida

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. súbita and sumida follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
súbita
6 ch
sumida

Visual trap between súbita and sumida

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: súbita is [ˈsuβ̞it̪a] while sumida is [suˈmið̞a]. 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 (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

súbita is recorded at frequency rank #25,831, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈsuβ̞it̪a]. sumida is at rank #33,865, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [suˈmið̞a].

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 59696, this pair ranks #61,683 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of súbita vs sumida

Shared letters: ais. Private to "súbita": btú. Private to "sumida": dmu.

"súbita" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "sumida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sumida ← smuida · ssumida · suimda · sumdia · sumiad · sumidda · summida · usmida

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "súbita" and "sumida" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "súbita" is an adjective and "sumida" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "súbita" vs "sumida" - which ranks higher?
"súbita" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,831 in our Spanish list, against #33,865 for "sumida". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "súbita" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sumida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,683 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "súbita" and "sumida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sumida vs sumidos". 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 #61,683 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