envíavsenviabaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: envía is a noun, enviaba is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“envía” is a noun and “enviaba” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,420
“envía” frequency rank
#23,396
“enviaba” frequency rank
27816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature envía enviaba
Definition Envidia. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de enviar.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set envía and enviaba apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
envía
7 ch
enviaba

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: envía is [ẽmˈbia] while enviaba is [ẽmˈbjaβ̞a]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

envía is recorded at frequency rank #4,420, classified as anoun, pronounced [ẽmˈbia]. enviaba is at rank #23,396, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽmˈbjaβ̞a].

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 27816, this pair ranks #225,021 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of envía vs enviaba

Shared letters: aenv. Private to "envía": í. Private to "enviaba": bi.

"envía" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV  ·  "enviaba" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enviabaenbiaba · enivaba · ennviaba · envaiba · enviaab · enviabba · enviava · envibaa

Frequency comparison

envía#4,420
enviaba#23,396

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "envía" and "enviaba" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "envía" is a noun and "enviaba" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "envía" or "enviaba"?
"envía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,420 in our Spanish list, against #23,396 for "enviaba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering envía vs enviaba

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “envía”; for a verb, it's “enviaba”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “envía” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list