escondíanvsescondióWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,306
“escondían” frequency rank
#24,857
“escondió” frequency rank
70163
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature escondían escondió
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de esconder. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de esconder.

Where the eye mixes escondían and escondió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. escondían runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVVC) against escondió's 8 (VCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
escondían
8 ch
escondió

Why the eye confuses escondían with escondió

A purely visual mix-up. escondían ([eskõn̪ˈd̪iãn]) and escondió ([eskõn̪ˈd̪jo]) 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 70163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

escondían is recorded at frequency rank #45,306, classified as averb, pronounced [eskõn̪ˈd̪iãn]. escondió is at rank #24,857, tagged as averb, pronounced [eskõn̪ˈd̪jo].

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 70163, this pair ranks #30,320 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of escondían vs escondió

Shared letters: cdenos. Private to "escondían": aí. Private to "escondió": ió.

"escondían" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC  ·  "escondió" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "escondían" and "escondió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([eskõn̪ˈd̪iãn] versus [eskõn̪ˈd̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "escondían" or "escondió"?
"escondió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,857 in our Spanish list, against #45,306 for "escondían". 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 "escondían" and "escondió" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "escondían" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "escondió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,320 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "escondían" and "escondió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "esconda vs escondían". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,320 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