comíanvscomióWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,156
“comían” frequency rank
#10,810
“comió” frequency rank
37966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comían comió
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto 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 comían and comió

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

6 ch
comían
5 ch
comió

Why the eye confuses comían with comió

A purely visual mix-up. comían ([koˈmiãn]) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comían is recorded at frequency rank #27,156, classified as averb, pronounced [koˈmiãn]. 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 37966, this pair ranks #172,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comían vs comió

Shared letters: cmo. Private to "comían": aní. Private to "comió": .

"comían" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "comió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "comían" for "comió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([koˈmiãn] versus [koˈmjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "comían" vs "comió" - which ranks higher?
"comió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,810 in our Spanish list, against #27,156 for "comían". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "comían" 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 #172,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comían" and "comió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs comían". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #172,526 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