encendidovsencendióConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#9,287
“encendido” frequency rank
#17,422
“encendió” frequency rank
26709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encendido encendió
Definition Participio de encender. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de encender o de encenderse.

Where the eye mixes encendido and encendió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. encendido runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVCV) against encendió's 8 (VCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
encendido
8 ch
encendió

Why the eye confuses encendido with encendió

A purely visual mix-up. encendido ([ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o]) and encendió ([ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) 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 26709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encendido is recorded at frequency rank #9,287, classified as averb, pronounced [ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o]. encendió is at rank #17,422, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪jo].

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 26709, this pair ranks #230,346 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of encendido vs encendió

Shared letters: cdein. Private to "encendido": o. Private to "encendió": ó.

"encendido" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV  ·  "encendió" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encendidoecnendido · enccendido · encednido · encenddido · encenddio · encendiddo · encendiod · enceniddo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "encendido" for "encendió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o] versus [ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "encendido" vs "encendió" - which ranks higher?
"encendido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,287 in our Spanish list, against #17,422 for "encendió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "encendido" and "encendió" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encendido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "encendió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #230,346 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encendido" and "encendió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encendió vs excedió". 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 #230,346 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