importóvsimpostorTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#14,870
“importó” frequency rank
#33,169
“impostor” frequency rank
48039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature importó impostor
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de importar. Se dice de la persona que se hace pasar por otra.

Where the eye mixes importó and impostor

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

7 ch
importó
8 ch
impostor

Look-alike desk: importó vs impostor

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: importó is [ĩmpoɾˈt̪o] while impostor is [ĩmposˈt̪oɾ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

importó is recorded at frequency rank #14,870, classified as averb, pronounced [ĩmpoɾˈt̪o]. impostor is at rank #33,169, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ĩmposˈt̪oɾ].

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 48039, this pair ranks #116,670 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of importó vs impostor

Shared letters: imoprt. Private to "importó": ó. Private to "impostor": s.

"importó" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "impostor" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • impostor ← immpostor · imopstor · imposotr · imposstor · impostorr · impostro · imposttor · impotsor

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "importó" for "impostor" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "importó" is a verb and "impostor" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "importó" or "impostor"?
"importó" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,870 in our Spanish list, against #33,169 for "impostor". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "importó" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impostor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #116,670 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "importó" and "impostor" 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 #116,670 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