descendidovsdescendióWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,381
“descendido” frequency rank
#21,975
“descendió” frequency rank
45356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature descendido descendió
Definition Participio de descender. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de descender.

Where the eye mixes descendido and descendió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. descendido runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVCV) against descendió's 9 (CVCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
descendido
9 ch
descendió

Why the eye confuses descendido with descendió

A purely visual mix-up. descendido ([d̪esẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o]) and descendió ([d̪esẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) 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 45356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

descendido is recorded at frequency rank #23,381, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪esẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o]. descendió is at rank #21,975, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪esẽn̪ˈd̪jo].

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 45356, this pair ranks #131,900 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of descendido vs descendió

Shared letters: cdeins. Private to "descendido": o. Private to "descendió": ó.

"descendido" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCV  ·  "descendió" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • descendidoddescendido · decsendido · desccendido · descednido · descenddido · descenddio · descendiddo · descendiod

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "descendido" and "descendió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([d̪esẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o] versus [d̪esẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "descendido" or "descendió" show up more?
"descendió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,975 in our Spanish list, against #23,381 for "descendido". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "descendido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "descendió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,900 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "descendido" and "descendió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "descendió vs desprendió". 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 #131,900 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