distinguidosvsdistinguióTell them apart

Quick tell: distinguidos is a participle, distinguió is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“distinguidos” is a participle and “distinguió” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,389
“distinguidos” frequency rank
#28,338
“distinguió” frequency rank
51727
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature distinguidos distinguió
Definition Forma del plural de distinguido, participio de distinguir. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de distinguir o de distinguirse.

Where the eye mixes distinguidos and distinguió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. distinguidos runs 12 letters (CVCCVCCVVCVC) against distinguió's 10 (CVCCVCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
distinguidos
10 ch
distinguió

Visual trap between distinguidos and distinguió

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: distinguidos is [d̪ist̪ĩŋˈgið̞os] while distinguió is [d̪ist̪ĩŋˈgjo]. 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 (participle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

distinguidos is recorded at frequency rank #23,389, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [d̪ist̪ĩŋˈgið̞os]. distinguió is at rank #28,338, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪ist̪ĩŋˈgjo].

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 51727, this pair ranks #96,379 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of distinguidos vs distinguió

Shared letters: dginstu. Private to "distinguidos": o. Private to "distinguió": ó.

"distinguidos" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVCVC  ·  "distinguió" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • distinguidos ← ddistinguidos · disitnguidos · disstinguidos · distignuidos · distingguidos · distingiudos · distingudios · distinguiddos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "distinguidos" for "distinguió" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "distinguidos" is a participle and "distinguió" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "distinguidos" or "distinguió" show up more?
"distinguidos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,389 in our Spanish list, against #28,338 for "distinguió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "distinguidos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "distinguió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #96,379 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "distinguidos" and "distinguió" 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 #96,379 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