vacíavsveíaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#7,085
“vacía” frequency rank
#2,691
“veía” frequency rank
9776
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vacía veía
Definition Forma del femenino singular de vacío. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de ver o de verse.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set vacía and veía apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
vacía
4 ch
veía

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vacía is [baˈsia] while veía is [beˈia]. 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 9776, 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]. veía is at rank #2,691, tagged as averb, pronounced [beˈia].

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 9776, this pair ranks #300,861 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vacía vs veía

Shared letters: aví. Private to "vacía": c. Private to "veía": e.

"vacía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "veía" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Frequency comparison

vacía#7,085
veía#2,691

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vacía" and "veía" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vacía" is an adjective and "veía" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vacía" or "veía"?
"veía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,691 in our Spanish list, against #7,085 for "vacía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering vacía vs veía

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 “veía”.
  • 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