vocalesvsvocesTell them apart

Quick tell: vocales is a adjective, voces is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vocales” is an adjective and “voces” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,227
“vocales” frequency rank
#2,536
“voces” frequency rank
11763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vocales voces
Definition Forma del plural de vocal. Forma del plural de voz.

Where the eye mixes vocales and voces

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. vocales runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against voces's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
vocales
5 ch
voces

Look-alike desk: vocales vs voces

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vocales is [boˈkales] while voces is [ˈboses]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 11763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vocales is recorded at frequency rank #9,227, classified as anadj, pronounced [boˈkales]. voces is at rank #2,536, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈboses].

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 11763, this pair ranks #293,972 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vocales vs voces

Shared letters: ceosv. Private to "vocales": al. Private to "voces": -.

"vocales" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "voces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vocales ← bocales · ovcales · vcoales · voacles · vocaels · vocaless · vocalles · vocalse
  • voces ← boces · ovces · vcoes · vocces · vocess · vocse · voecs · voses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vocales" for "voces" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vocales" is an adjective and "voces" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "vocales" or "voces" show up more?
"voces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,536 in our Spanish list, against #9,227 for "vocales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "vocales" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293,972 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vocales" and "voces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vocablos vs vocales". 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 #293,972 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