exigíanvsexigióWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,503
“exigían” frequency rank
#13,245
“exigió” frequency rank
37748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes exigían and exigió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. exigían runs 7 letters (VCVCVVC) against exigió's 6 (VCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
exigían
6 ch
exigió

Why the eye confuses exigían with exigió

A purely visual mix-up. exigían ([eksiˈxiãn]) and exigió ([eksiˈxjo]) 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 37748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exigían is recorded at frequency rank #24,503, classified as averb, pronounced [eksiˈxiãn]. exigió is at rank #13,245, tagged as averb, pronounced [eksiˈxjo].

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 37748, this pair ranks #173,686 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of exigían vs exigió

Shared letters: egix. Private to "exigían": aní. Private to "exigió": ó.

"exigían" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC  ·  "exigió" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "exigían" for "exigió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([eksiˈxiãn] versus [eksiˈxjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "exigían" vs "exigió" - which ranks higher?
"exigió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,245 in our Spanish list, against #24,503 for "exigían". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "exigían" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exigió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,686 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exigían" and "exigió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exigían vs exigida". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #173,686 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