llegabavsllenaráTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,981
“llegaba” frequency rank
#37,696
“llenará” frequency rank
43677
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature llegaba llenará
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de llegar o de llegarse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de llenar.

Where the eye mixes llegaba and llenará

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. llegaba and llenará follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
llegaba
7 ch
llenará

Why the eye confuses llegaba with llenará

A purely visual mix-up. llegaba ([ʝeˈɣ̞aβ̞a]) and llenará ([ʝenaˈɾa]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43677, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

llegaba is recorded at frequency rank #5,981, classified as averb, pronounced [ʝeˈɣ̞aβ̞a]. llenará is at rank #37,696, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʝenaˈɾa].

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 43677, this pair ranks #141,316 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of llegaba vs llenará

Shared letters: ael. Private to "llegaba": bg. Private to "llenará": nrá.

"llegaba" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "llenará" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • llegaba ← legaba · lelgaba · lleagba · llegaab · llegabba · llegava · llegbaa · lleggaba

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "llegaba" for "llenará" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ʝeˈɣ̞aβ̞a] versus [ʝenaˈɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "llegaba" vs "llenará" - which ranks higher?
"llegaba" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,981 in our Spanish list, against #37,696 for "llenará". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "llegaba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "llenará" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #141,316 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "llegaba" and "llenará" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "llenará vs llevarás". 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 #141,316 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