vadovsvasTell them apart

Quick tell: vado is a noun, vas is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vado” is a noun and “vas” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,589
“vado” frequency rank
#323
“vas” frequency rank
40912
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vado vas
Definition Sitio firme, parejo y de poca profundidad, por donde se puede cruzar un río. Segunda persona del singular (tú, vos) del presente de indicativo de ir o de irse.

Where the eye mixes vado and vas

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

4 ch
vado
3 ch
vas

Visual trap between vado and vas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vado is [ˈbað̞o] while vas is [ˈbas]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vado is recorded at frequency rank #40,589, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbað̞o]. vas is at rank #323, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈbas].

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 40912, this pair ranks #156,528 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vado vs vas

Shared letters: av. Private to "vado": do. Private to "vas": s.

"vado" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vadoavdo · bado · vaddo · vaod · vdao · vvado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vado" for "vas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vado" is a noun and "vas" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vado" vs "vas" - which ranks higher?
"vas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #323 in our Spanish list, against #40,589 for "vado". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "vado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,528 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vado" and "vas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vado vs ved". 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 #156,528 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