despedívsdespejeTell them apart

Quick tell: despedí is a verb, despeje is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“despedí” is a verb and “despeje” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,159
“despedí” frequency rank
#40,248
“despeje” frequency rank
79407
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature despedí despeje
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de despedir. Acción o efecto de despejar o despejarse (desocupar, abrir espacio).

Where the eye mixes despedí and despeje

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

7 ch
despedí
7 ch
despeje

Look-alike desk: despedí vs despeje

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: despedí is [d̪espeˈð̞i] while despeje is [d̪esˈpexe]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

despedí is recorded at frequency rank #39,159, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪espeˈð̞i]. despeje is at rank #40,248, tagged as anoun, pronounced [d̪esˈpexe].

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 79407, this pair ranks #13,052 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of despedí vs despeje

Shared letters: deps. Private to "despedí": í. Private to "despeje": j.

"despedí" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "despeje" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • despeje ← ddespeje · depseje · desepje · despeej · despejje · despjee · desppeje · desspeje

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "despedí" and "despeje" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "despedí" is a verb and "despeje" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "despedí" or "despeje" show up more?
"despedí" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,159 in our Spanish list, against #40,248 for "despeje". 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 "despedí" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "despeje" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,052 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "despedí" and "despeje" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "despeja vs despeje". 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 #13,052 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