importabavsimportantWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: importaba is a verb, important is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“importaba” is a verb and “important” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,818
“importaba” frequency rank
#40,875
“important” frequency rank
49693
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature importaba important
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de importar. Importante.

Where the eye mixes importaba and important

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
importaba
9 ch
important

Visual trap between importaba and important

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: importaba is [ĩmpoɾˈt̪aβ̞a] while important is /ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49693, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

importaba is recorded at frequency rank #8,818, classified as averb, pronounced [ĩmpoɾˈt̪aβ̞a]. important is at rank #40,875, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃/.

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 49693, this pair ranks #107,376 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of importaba vs important

Shared letters: aimoprt. Private to "importaba": b. Private to "important": n.

"importaba" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV  ·  "important" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • importabaimmportaba · imoprtaba · imporatba · imporrtaba · importaab · importabba · importava · importbaa
  • importantimmportant · imoprtant · imporatnt · imporrtant · importannt · importantt · importatn · importnat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "importaba" and "important" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "importaba" is a verb and "important" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "importaba" or "important"?
"importaba" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,818 in our Spanish list, against #40,875 for "important". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "importaba" and "important" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "importaba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "important" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #107,376 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "importaba" and "important" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "important vs importen". 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 #107,376 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