desarrollanvsdesarrollenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,414
“desarrollan” frequency rank
#22,653
“desarrollen” frequency rank
30067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desarrollan desarrollen
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de desarrollar o de desarrollarse. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de desarrollar o de desarrollarse.

Where the eye mixes desarrollan and desarrollen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. desarrollan and desarrollen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
desarrollan
11 ch
desarrollen

Why the eye confuses desarrollan with desarrollen

A purely visual mix-up. desarrollan ([d̪esaˈroʝãn]) and desarrollen ([d̪esaˈroʝẽn]) 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 a single letter - a in “desarrollan” becomes e in “desarrollen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desarrollan is recorded at frequency rank #7,414, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪esaˈroʝãn]. desarrollen is at rank #22,653, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪esaˈroʝẽn].

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 30067, this pair ranks #213,839 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of desarrollan vs desarrollen

Shared letters: adelnors. Private to "desarrollan": -. Private to "desarrollen": -.

"desarrollan" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVC  ·  "desarrollen" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desarrollan ← ddesarrollan · deasrrollan · desarollan · desarorllan · desarrlolan · desarrolaln · desarrolan · desarrollann
  • desarrollen ← ddesarrollen · deasrrollen · desarollen · desarorllen · desarrlolen · desarroleln · desarrolen · desarrollenn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "desarrollan" and "desarrollen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([d̪esaˈroʝãn] versus [d̪esaˈroʝẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "desarrollan" or "desarrollen"?
"desarrollan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,414 in our Spanish list, against #22,653 for "desarrollen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "desarrollan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desarrollen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,839 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desarrollan" and "desarrollen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desarrollan vs desarrollarán". 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 #213,839 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