dormíavsdurmióTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,025
“dormía” frequency rank
#18,520
“durmió” frequency rank
31545
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dormía durmió
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de dormir o de dormirse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de dormir o de dormirse.

Where the eye mixes dormía and durmió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dormía and durmió follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
dormía
6 ch
durmió

Visual trap between dormía and durmió

A purely visual mix-up. dormía ([d̪oɾˈmia]) and durmió ([d̪uɾˈmjo]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dormía is recorded at frequency rank #13,025, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪oɾˈmia]. durmió is at rank #18,520, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪uɾˈmjo].

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 31545, this pair ranks #206,555 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dormía vs durmió

Shared letters: dmr. Private to "dormía": aoí. Private to "durmió": iuó.

"dormía" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "durmió" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dormía" and "durmió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([d̪oɾˈmia] versus [d̪uɾˈmjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dormía" or "durmió"?
"dormía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,025 in our Spanish list, against #18,520 for "durmió". 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 "dormía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durmió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,555 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dormía" and "durmió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dormi vs durmió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #206,555 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