comenzaban
[komẽnˈsaβ̞ãn]
The verdict
“comenzaban” is a moderately-common Spanish word, ranked #26,364 in Spanish word frequency and used as a verb.
- #26,364
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 10
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de comenzar.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | comenzaban |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [komẽnˈsaβ̞ãn] |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #26,364 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “comenzaban” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for comenzaban is 10 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [komẽnˈsaβ̞ãn]. Corpus data places it at rank #26,364 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de comenzar.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for comenzaban, with forms such as "ccomenzaban", "cmoenzaban", and "coemnzaban". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "comenzará", "comenzada", "comenzaron", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct Spanish form is comenzaban, spelled C-O-M-E-N-Z-A-B-A-N.
Definition
- 1Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de comenzar.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccomenzaban,cmoenzaban,coemnzaban,comenazban,comennzaban,comenzaabn,comenzabann,comenzabban,comenzabna,comenzavan,comenzbaan,comenzzaban,comeznaban,commenzaban,comnezaban,ocmenzaban
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of comenzaban - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "comenzaban"?
What does "comenzaban" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "comenzaban"?
How do you pronounce "comenzaban"?
What language does "comenzaban" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “comenzaban”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is C-O-M-E-N-Z-A-B-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [komẽnˈsaβ̞ãn] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “comenzará” - see the side-by-side comparison. comenzaban vs comenzará
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.