exigíanvsexijanWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,503
“exigían” frequency rank
#28,370
“exijan” frequency rank
52873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exigían exijan
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de exigir. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de exigir.

Where the eye mixes exigían and exijan

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

7 ch
exigían
6 ch
exijan

Visual trap between exigían and exijan

A purely visual mix-up. exigían ([eksiˈxiãn]) and exijan ([ekˈsixãn]) 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 52873, 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]. exijan is at rank #28,370, tagged as averb, pronounced [ekˈsixãn].

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 52873, this pair ranks #90,592 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of exigían vs exijan

Shared letters: aeinx. Private to "exigían": . Private to "exijan": j.

"exigían" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC  ·  "exijan" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exijaneixjan · exiajn · exijann · exijjan · exijna · exjian · exxijan · xeijan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "exigían" and "exijan" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([eksiˈxiãn] versus [ekˈsixãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "exigían" or "exijan" show up more?
"exigían" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,503 in our Spanish list, against #28,370 for "exijan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "exijan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,592 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exigían" and "exijan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excitan vs exijan". 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 #90,592 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