impedíavsimpedidoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#22,389
“impedía” frequency rank
#14,867
“impedido” frequency rank
37256
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature impedía impedido
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de impedir. Participio de impedir.

Where the eye mixes impedía and impedido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. impedía runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against impedido's 8 (VCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
impedía
8 ch
impedido

Visual trap between impedía and impedido

A purely visual mix-up. impedía ([ĩmpeˈð̞ia]) and impedido ([ĩmpeˈð̞ið̞o]) 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 37256, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

impedía is recorded at frequency rank #22,389, classified as averb, pronounced [ĩmpeˈð̞ia]. impedido is at rank #14,867, tagged as averb, pronounced [ĩmpeˈð̞ið̞o].

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 37256, this pair ranks #176,245 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of impedía vs impedido

Shared letters: deimp. Private to "impedía": aí. Private to "impedido": o.

"impedía" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "impedido" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • impedido ← imepdido · immpedido · impdeido · impeddido · impeddio · impediddo · impediod · impeiddo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "impedía" for "impedido" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ĩmpeˈð̞ia] versus [ĩmpeˈð̞ið̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "impedía" or "impedido"?
"impedido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,867 in our Spanish list, against #22,389 for "impedía". 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 "impedía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impedido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #176,245 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "impedía" and "impedido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impedía vs impedían". 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 #176,245 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