defendíavsdependaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#16,550
“defendía” frequency rank
#23,745
“dependa” frequency rank
40295
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature defendía dependa
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de defender o de defenderse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de depender.

Where the eye mixes defendía and dependa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. defendía runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against dependa's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
defendía
7 ch
dependa

Why the eye confuses defendía with dependa

A purely visual mix-up. defendía ([d̪efẽn̪ˈd̪ia]) and dependa ([d̪eˈpẽn̪d̪a]) 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 40295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

defendía is recorded at frequency rank #16,550, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪efẽn̪ˈd̪ia]. dependa is at rank #23,745, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈpẽn̪d̪a].

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 40295, this pair ranks #159,907 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of defendía vs dependa

Shared letters: aden. Private to "defendía": fí. Private to "dependa": p.

"defendía" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "dependa" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dependa ← ddependa · deepnda · depedna · depenad · dependda · depennda · depneda · deppenda

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "defendía" for "dependa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([d̪efẽn̪ˈd̪ia] versus [d̪eˈpẽn̪d̪a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "defendía" or "dependa"?
"defendía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,550 in our Spanish list, against #23,745 for "dependa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "defendía" and "dependa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "defendía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dependa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,907 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "defendía" and "dependa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dependa vs dependan". 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 #159,907 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