vacíavsvalióWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: vacía is a adjective, valió is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vacía” is an adjective and “valió” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,085
“vacía” frequency rank
#8,734
“valió” frequency rank
15819
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vacía valió
Definition Forma del femenino singular de vacío. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de valer o de valerse.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
vacía
5 ch
valió

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vacía is [baˈsia] while valió is [baˈljo]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vacía is recorded at frequency rank #7,085, classified as anadj, pronounced [baˈsia]. valió is at rank #8,734, tagged as averb, pronounced [baˈljo].

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 15819, this pair ranks #278,658 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vacía vs valió

Shared letters: av. Private to "vacía": . Private to "valió": iló.

"vacía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "valió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequency comparison

vacía#7,085
valió#8,734

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vacía" and "valió" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vacía" is an adjective and "valió" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vacía" or "valió"?
"vacía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,085 in our Spanish list, against #8,734 for "valió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering vacía vs valió

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list