enseñarvsenseñéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,551
“enseñar” frequency rank
#38,676
“enseñé” frequency rank
42227
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enseñar enseñé
Definition Ayudar o hacer a alguien aprender. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de enseñar o de enseñarse.

Where the eye mixes enseñar and enseñé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. enseñar runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against enseñé's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
enseñar
6 ch
enseñé

Why the eye confuses enseñar with enseñé

A purely visual mix-up. enseñar ([ẽnseˈɲaɾ]) and enseñé ([ẽnseˈɲe]) 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 42227, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enseñar is recorded at frequency rank #3,551, classified as averb, pronounced [ẽnseˈɲaɾ]. enseñé is at rank #38,676, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽnseˈɲe].

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 42227, this pair ranks #149,424 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enseñar vs enseñé

Shared letters: ensñ. Private to "enseñar": ar. Private to "enseñé": é.

"enseñar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "enseñé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enseñar" and "enseñé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ẽnseˈɲaɾ] versus [ẽnseˈɲe]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "enseñar" or "enseñé" show up more?
"enseñar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,551 in our Spanish list, against #38,676 for "enseñé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "enseñar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enseñé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,424 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enseñar" and "enseñé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enseñaré vs enseñé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #149,424 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