comenvscomióWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,155
“comen” frequency rank
#10,810
“comió” frequency rank
16965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comen comió
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de comer o de comerse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de comer o de comerse.

Where the eye mixes comen and comió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
comen
5 ch
comió

Visual trap between comen and comió

A purely visual mix-up. comen ([ˈkomẽn]) and comió ([koˈmjo]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comen is recorded at frequency rank #6,155, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkomẽn]. comió is at rank #10,810, tagged as averb, pronounced [koˈmjo].

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 16965, this pair ranks #274,063 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of comen vs comió

Shared letters: cmo. Private to "comen": en. Private to "comió": .

"comen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "comió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comenccomen · cmoen · coemn · comenn · commen · comne · ocmen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "comen" for "comió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkomẽn] versus [koˈmjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "comen" or "comió" show up more?
"comen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,155 in our Spanish list, against #10,810 for "comió". 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 "comen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #274,063 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comen" and "comió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs comió". 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 #274,063 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