aprendevsaprendíaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,668
“aprende” frequency rank
#44,556
“aprendía” frequency rank
48224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aprende aprendía
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de aprender o de aprenderse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de aprender o de aprenderse.

Where the eye mixes aprende and aprendía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. aprende runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against aprendía's 8 (VCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
aprende
8 ch
aprendía

Visual trap between aprende and aprendía

A purely visual mix-up. aprende ([aˈpɾẽn̪d̪e]) and aprendía ([apɾẽn̪ˈd̪ia]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aprende is recorded at frequency rank #3,668, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈpɾẽn̪d̪e]. aprendía is at rank #44,556, tagged as averb, pronounced [apɾẽn̪ˈd̪ia].

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 48224, this pair ranks #115,671 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aprende vs aprendía

Shared letters: adenpr. Private to "aprende": -. Private to "aprendía": í.

"aprende" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "aprendía" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aprende ← apernde · apprende · apredne · aprendde · aprened · aprennde · aprnede · aprrende

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aprende" for "aprendía" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈpɾẽn̪d̪e] versus [apɾẽn̪ˈd̪ia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aprende" vs "aprendía" - which ranks higher?
"aprende" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,668 in our Spanish list, against #44,556 for "aprendía". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aprende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aprendía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,671 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aprende" and "aprendía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aprendía vs aprendidas". 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 #115,671 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