Which to use
“sucio” is an adjective and “surgió” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,012
- “sucio” frequency rank
- #4,838
- “surgió” frequency rank
- 10850
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sucio | surgió |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Se dice de lo que no está limpio. | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de surgir. |
Where the eye mixes sucio and surgió
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sucio runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against surgió's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between sucio and surgió
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sucio is [ˈsusjo] while surgió is [suɾˈxjo]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sucio is recorded at frequency rank #6,012, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈsusjo]. surgió is at rank #4,838, tagged as averb, pronounced [suɾˈxjo].
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 10850, this pair ranks #297,155 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sucio vs surgió
Shared letters: isu. Private to "sucio": co. Private to "surgió": gró.
"sucio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "surgió" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- sucio ← scuio · ssucio · succio · sucoi · suico · susio · uscio
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sucio" and "surgió" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "sucio" or "surgió" show up more?
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 "sucio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "surgió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #297,155 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sucio" and "surgió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "subís vs sucio". 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 #297,155 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.