sostenían
[sost̪eˈniãn]
The verdict
“sostenían” has 13 generated spelling variants in the Spanish index at frequency #33,853. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #33,853
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 34,953
- “S” headwords
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- 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 sostener o de sostenerse.
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 | sostenían |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [sost̪eˈniãn] |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #33,853 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sostenían” sits in Spanish frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 13 spelling variants around sostenían (IPA [sost̪eˈniãn]), averb. Corpus frequency is #33,853 among 34,953 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de sostener o de sostenerse.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for sostenían, with forms such as "osstenían", "sosetnían", and "sosstenían". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "sostenido", "sostenida", "sustentan", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct Spanish form is sostenían, spelled S-O-S-T-E-N-Í-A-N.
Definition
- 1Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de sostener o de sostenerse.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: osstenían,sosetnían,sosstenían,sostenaín,sostennían,sosteníann,sostenína,sosteínan,sostneían,sosttenían,sotsenían,ssostenían,ssotenían
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sostenían - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "sostenían"?
What does "sostenían" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sostenían"?
How do you pronounce "sostenían"?
What language does "sostenían" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sostenían”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is S-O-S-T-E-N-Í-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [sost̪eˈniãn] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sostenido” - see the side-by-side comparison. sostenían vs sostenido
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
Same frequency band
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.