intensavsintensoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,522
“intensa” frequency rank
#5,119
“intenso” frequency rank
10641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intensa intenso
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de intensar. Que tiene o se hace con intensidad.

Where the eye mixes intensa and intenso

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

7 ch
intensa
7 ch
intenso

Look-alike desk: intensa vs intenso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: intensa is [ĩn̪ˈt̪ẽnsa] while intenso is [ĩn̪ˈt̪ẽnso]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “intensa” becomes o in “intenso”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intensa is recorded at frequency rank #5,522, classified as averb, pronounced [ĩn̪ˈt̪ẽnsa]. intenso is at rank #5,119, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ĩn̪ˈt̪ẽnso].

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 10641, this pair ranks #297,917 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of intensa vs intenso

Shared letters: einst. Private to "intensa": a. Private to "intenso": o.

"intensa" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "intenso" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intensainetnsa · inntensa · intenas · intennsa · intenssa · intesna · intnesa · inttensa
  • intensoinetnso · inntenso · intennso · intenos · intensso · intesno · intneso · inttenso

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "intensa" and "intenso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "intensa" is a verb and "intenso" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "intensa" or "intenso" show up more?
"intenso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,119 in our Spanish list, against #5,522 for "intensa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "intensa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intenso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,917 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intensa" and "intenso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intenso vs intereso". 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 #297,917 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