Which to use
“formaban” is a verb and “formadas” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,157
- “formaban” frequency rank
- #16,857
- “formadas” frequency rank
- 29014
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | formaban | formadas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de formar o de formarse. | Forma del femenino plural de formado, participio de formar o de formarse. |
Where the eye mixes formaban and formadas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: formaban vs formadas
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: formaban is [foɾˈmaβ̞ãn] while formadas is [foɾˈmað̞as]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29014, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
formaban is recorded at frequency rank #12,157, classified as averb, pronounced [foɾˈmaβ̞ãn]. formadas is at rank #16,857, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [foɾˈmað̞as].
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 29014, this pair ranks #219,128 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of formaban vs formadas
Shared letters: afmor. Private to "formaban": bn. Private to "formadas": ds.
"formaban" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "formadas" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "formaban" and "formadas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "formaban" or "formadas" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "formaban" and "formadas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "formaban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "formadas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #219,128 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "formaban" and "formadas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "formadas vs formaran". 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 #219,128 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.