Which to use
“distinguía” is a verb and “distinguidas” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,743
- “distinguía” frequency rank
- #48,960
- “distinguidas” frequency rank
- 96703
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | distinguía | distinguidas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de distinguir o de distinguirse. | Forma del femenino plural de distinguido, participio de distinguir. |
Where the eye mixes distinguía and distinguidas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. distinguía runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVVV) against distinguidas's 12 (CVCCVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between distinguía and distinguidas
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: distinguía is [d̪ist̪ĩŋˈgia] while distinguidas is [d̪ist̪ĩŋˈgið̞as]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
distinguía is recorded at frequency rank #47,743, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪ist̪ĩŋˈgia]. distinguidas is at rank #48,960, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [d̪ist̪ĩŋˈgið̞as].
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 96703, this pair ranks #296 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of distinguía vs distinguidas
Shared letters: adginstu. Private to "distinguía": í. Private to "distinguidas": -.
"distinguía" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVV · "distinguidas" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- distinguidas ← ddistinguidas · disitnguidas · disstinguidas · distignuidas · distingguidas · distingiudas · distingudias · distinguiads
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "distinguía" for "distinguidas" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "distinguía" or "distinguidas" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "distinguía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "distinguidas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #296 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "distinguía" and "distinguidas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "distinguía vs distinguió". 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 #296 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.