intentanvsintentéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,120
“intentan” frequency rank
#10,516
“intenté” frequency rank
15636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intentan intenté
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de intentar. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de intentar.

Where the eye mixes intentan and intenté

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

8 ch
intentan
7 ch
intenté

Look-alike desk: intentan vs intenté

A purely visual mix-up. intentan ([ĩn̪ˈt̪ẽn̪t̪ãn]) and intenté ([ĩn̪t̪ẽn̪ˈt̪e]) 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 15636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intentan is recorded at frequency rank #5,120, classified as averb, pronounced [ĩn̪ˈt̪ẽn̪t̪ãn]. intenté is at rank #10,516, tagged as averb, pronounced [ĩn̪t̪ẽn̪ˈt̪e].

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 15636, this pair ranks #279,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of intentan vs intenté

Shared letters: eint. Private to "intentan": a. Private to "intenté": é.

"intentan" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "intenté" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intentaninetntan · inntentan · intenatn · intenntan · intentann · intentna · intenttan · intetnan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "intentan" and "intenté" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ĩn̪ˈt̪ẽn̪t̪ãn] versus [ĩn̪t̪ẽn̪ˈt̪e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "intentan" or "intenté" show up more?
"intentan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,120 in our Spanish list, against #10,516 for "intenté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intentan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intenté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intentan" and "intenté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intenté vs inventen". 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 #279,364 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