vacíovsvalióTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,753
“vacío” frequency rank
#8,734
“valió” frequency rank
11487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vacío valió
Definition Que físicamente no contiene nada. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de valer o de valerse.

Where the eye mixes vacío and valió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
vacío
5 ch
valió

Why the eye confuses vacío with valió

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vacío is [baˈsio] 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 11487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vacío is recorded at frequency rank #2,753, classified as anadj, pronounced [baˈsio]. 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 11487, this pair ranks #294,932 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vacío vs valió

Shared letters: av. Private to "vacío": coí. Private to "valió": iló.

"vacío" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "valió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vacío" for "valió" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vacío" is an adjective and "valió" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vacío" vs "valió" - which ranks higher?
"vacío" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,753 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "vacío" and "valió" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vacío" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "valió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #294,932 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vacío" and "valió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "valió vs vasito". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #294,932 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