importavsimportóTell them apart

Which to use

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

#536
“importa” frequency rank
#14,870
“importó” frequency rank
15406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature importa importó
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de importar. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de importar.

Where the eye mixes importa and importó

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
importa
7 ch
importó

Look-alike desk: importa vs importó

A purely visual mix-up. importa ([ĩmˈpoɾt̪a]) and importó ([ĩmpoɾˈt̪o]) 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 a single letter - a in “importa” becomes ó in “importó”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

importa is recorded at frequency rank #536, classified as averb, pronounced [ĩmˈpoɾt̪a]. importó is at rank #14,870, tagged as averb, pronounced [ĩmpoɾˈt̪o].

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 15406, this pair ranks #280,299 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of importa vs importó

Shared letters: imoprt. Private to "importa": a. Private to "importó": ó.

"importa" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "importó" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • importaimmporta · imoprta · imporat · imporrta · importta · impotra · impporta · improta

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "importa" and "importó" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ĩmˈpoɾt̪a] versus [ĩmpoɾˈt̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "importa" vs "importó" - which ranks higher?
"importa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #536 in our Spanish list, against #14,870 for "importó". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "importa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "importó" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #280,299 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "importa" and "importó" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "import vs importó". 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 #280,299 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