Which to use
“vacías” is an adjective and “valía” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,556
- “vacías” frequency rank
- #10,240
- “valía” frequency rank
- 19796
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vacías | valía |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forma del femenino plural de vacío. | Variante de valor. |
Where the eye mixes vacías and valía
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vacías runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against valía's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: vacías vs valía
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vacías is [baˈsias] while valía is [baˈlia]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vacías is recorded at frequency rank #9,556, classified as anadj, pronounced [baˈsias]. valía is at rank #10,240, tagged as anoun, pronounced [baˈlia].
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 19796, this pair ranks #262,155 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vacías vs valía
Shared letters: aví. Private to "vacías": cs. Private to "valía": l.
"vacías" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "valía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vacías" for "valía" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "vacías" or "valía" show up more?
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 "vacías" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "valía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #262,155 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vacías" and "valía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vacila vs valía". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #262,155 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.