compartíavscompartíanTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,064
“compartía” frequency rank
#22,616
“compartían” frequency rank
41680
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature compartía compartían
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de compartir. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de compartir.

Where the eye mixes compartía and compartían

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
compartía
10 ch
compartían

Look-alike desk: compartía vs compartían

A purely visual mix-up. compartía ([kõmpaɾˈt̪ia]) and compartían ([kõmpaɾˈt̪iãn]) 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) - “compartía” sits inside “compartían”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

compartía is recorded at frequency rank #19,064, classified as averb, pronounced [kõmpaɾˈt̪ia]. compartían is at rank #22,616, tagged as averb, pronounced [kõmpaɾˈt̪iãn].

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 41680, this pair ranks #152,310 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of compartía vs compartían

Shared letters: acmoprtí. Private to "compartía": -. Private to "compartían": n.

"compartía" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "compartían" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "compartía" for "compartían" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kõmpaɾˈt̪ia] versus [kõmpaɾˈt̪iãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "compartía" or "compartían"?
"compartía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,064 in our Spanish list, against #22,616 for "compartían". 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 "compartía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "compartían" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #152,310 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "compartía" and "compartían" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "compartía vs competía". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #152,310 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