conducevsconducíaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,867
“conduce” frequency rank
#14,554
“conducía” frequency rank
19421
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conduce conducía
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de conducir o de conducirse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de conducir o de conducirse.

Where the eye mixes conduce and conducía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
conduce
8 ch
conducía

Visual trap between conduce and conducía

A purely visual mix-up. conduce ([kõn̪ˈd̪use]) and conducía ([kõn̪d̪uˈsia]) 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 19421, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conduce is recorded at frequency rank #4,867, classified as averb, pronounced [kõn̪ˈd̪use]. conducía is at rank #14,554, tagged as averb, pronounced [kõn̪d̪uˈsia].

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 19421, this pair ranks #263,829 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of conduce vs conducía

Shared letters: cdnou. Private to "conduce": e. Private to "conducía": .

"conduce" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "conducía" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conducecconduce · cnoduce · codnuce · condcue · condduce · conducce · conduec · conduse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "conduce" for "conducía" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kõn̪ˈd̪use] versus [kõn̪d̪uˈsia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "conduce" vs "conducía" - which ranks higher?
"conduce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,867 in our Spanish list, against #14,554 for "conducía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "conduce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conducía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #263,829 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conduce" and "conducía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conducía vs conducían". 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 #263,829 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