llovervsllovióTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,635
“llover” frequency rank
#30,984
“llovió” frequency rank
43619
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature llover llovió
Definition Caer agua del cielo. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de llover.

Where the eye mixes llover and llovió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. llover (CCVCVC) and llovió (CCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
llover
6 ch
llovió

Look-alike desk: llover vs llovió

A purely visual mix-up. llover ([ʝoˈβ̞eɾ]) and llovió ([ʝoˈβ̞jo]) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

llover is recorded at frequency rank #12,635, classified as averb, pronounced [ʝoˈβ̞eɾ]. llovió is at rank #30,984, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʝoˈβ̞jo].

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 43619, this pair ranks #141,663 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of llover vs llovió

Shared letters: lov. Private to "llover": er. Private to "llovió": ió.

"llover" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "llovió" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • llover ← llober · lloevr · lloverr · llovre · llovver · llvoer · lolver

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "llover" for "llovió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ʝoˈβ̞eɾ] versus [ʝoˈβ̞jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "llover" or "llovió" show up more?
"llover" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,635 in our Spanish list, against #30,984 for "llovió". 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 "llover" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "llovió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #141,663 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "llover" and "llovió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "llovido vs llovió". 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 #141,663 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