extinguevsextinguióWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,644
“extingue” frequency rank
#47,132
“extinguió” frequency rank
96776
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature extingue extinguió
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de extinguir o de extinguirse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de extinguir o de extinguirse.

Where the eye mixes extingue and extinguió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. extingue runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVV) against extinguió's 9 (VCCVCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
extingue
9 ch
extinguió

Visual trap between extingue and extinguió

A purely visual mix-up. extingue ([eksˈt̪ĩŋge]) and extinguió ([ekst̪ĩŋˈgjo]) 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 96776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

extingue is recorded at frequency rank #49,644, classified as averb, pronounced [eksˈt̪ĩŋge]. extinguió is at rank #47,132, tagged as averb, pronounced [ekst̪ĩŋˈgjo].

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 96776, this pair ranks #284 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of extingue vs extinguió

Shared letters: egintux. Private to "extingue": -. Private to "extinguió": ó.

"extingue" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "extinguió" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • extingue ← etxingue · exitngue · extignue · extingeu · extinggue · extinngue · extinuge · extnigue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "extingue" and "extinguió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([eksˈt̪ĩŋge] versus [ekst̪ĩŋˈgjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "extingue" or "extinguió"?
"extinguió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47,132 in our Spanish list, against #49,644 for "extingue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "extingue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "extinguió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #284 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "extingue" and "extinguió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "extinguida vs extinguió". 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 #284 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