vidavsvioWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#82
“vida” frequency rank
#1,334
“vio” frequency rank
1416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vida vio
Definition Estado que precede a la muerte y sigue al nacimiento de los seres orgánicos. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de ver o de verse.

Where the eye mixes vida and vio

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

4 ch
vida
3 ch
vio

Look-alike desk: vida vs vio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vida is [ˈbið̞a] while vio is [ˈbjo]. 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 1416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vida is recorded at frequency rank #82, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbið̞a]. vio is at rank #1,334, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈbjo].

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 1416, this pair ranks #322,100 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vida vs vio

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vida": ad. Private to "vio": o.

"vida" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vio" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vidabida · ivda · vdia · viad · vidda · vvida

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vida" for "vio" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vida" is a noun and "vio" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "vida" or "vio" show up more?
"vida" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #82 in our Spanish list, against #1,334 for "vio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vida" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #322,100 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vida" and "vio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vio vs VOR". 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 #322,100 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