competíavscompitióWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,664
“competía” frequency rank
#42,349
“compitió” frequency rank
90013
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature competía compitió
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de competer. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de competir.

Where the eye mixes competía and compitió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. competía and compitió follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
competía
8 ch
compitió

Why the eye confuses competía with compitió

A purely visual mix-up. competía ([kõmpeˈt̪ia]) and compitió ([kõmpiˈt̪jo]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

competía is recorded at frequency rank #47,664, classified as averb, pronounced [kõmpeˈt̪ia]. compitió is at rank #42,349, tagged as averb, pronounced [kõmpiˈt̪jo].

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 90013, this pair ranks #2,762 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of competía vs compitió

Shared letters: cmopt. Private to "competía": aeí. Private to "compitió": ió.

"competía" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "compitió" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "competía" and "compitió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kõmpeˈt̪ia] versus [kõmpiˈt̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "competía" vs "compitió" - which ranks higher?
"compitió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,349 in our Spanish list, against #47,664 for "competía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "competía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "compitió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,762 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "competía" and "compitió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "competía vs compita". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,762 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