activevsactivenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“active” and “activen” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,585
“active” frequency rank
#41,160
“activen” frequency rank
58745
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature active activen
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de activar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de activar.

Where the eye mixes active and activen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
active
7 ch
activen

Why the eye confuses active with activen

A purely visual mix-up. active ([akˈt̪iβ̞e]) and activen ([akˈt̪iβ̞ẽn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “active” sits inside “activen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

active is recorded at frequency rank #17,585, classified as averb, pronounced [akˈt̪iβ̞e]. activen is at rank #41,160, tagged as averb, pronounced [akˈt̪iβ̞ẽn].

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 58745, this pair ranks #65,294 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of active vs activen

Shared letters: aceitv. Private to "active": -. Private to "activen": n.

"active" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "activen" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • activeacctive · acitve · actibe · actiev · activve · acttive · actvie · atcive
  • activenacctiven · acitven · actiben · actievn · activenn · activne · activven · acttiven

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "active" and "activen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([akˈt̪iβ̞e] versus [akˈt̪iβ̞ẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "active" vs "activen" - which ranks higher?
"active" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,585 in our Spanish list, against #41,160 for "activen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "active" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "activen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,294 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "active" and "activen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "activan vs activen". 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 #65,294 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