mentiravsmentiríaTell them apart

Quick tell: mentira is a noun, mentiría is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mentira” is a noun and “mentiría” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,037
“mentira” frequency rank
#47,934
“mentiría” frequency rank
49971
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mentira mentiría
Definition Acción o efecto de mentir. Primera persona del singular (yo) del condicional de mentir.

Where the eye mixes mentira and mentiría

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

7 ch
mentira
8 ch
mentiría

Why the eye confuses mentira with mentiría

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mentira is [mẽn̪ˈt̪iɾa] while mentiría is [mẽn̪t̪iˈɾia]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mentira is recorded at frequency rank #2,037, classified as anoun, pronounced [mẽn̪ˈt̪iɾa]. mentiría is at rank #47,934, tagged as averb, pronounced [mẽn̪t̪iˈɾia].

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 49971, this pair ranks #105,827 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mentira vs mentiría

Shared letters: aeimnrt. Private to "mentira": -. Private to "mentiría": í.

"mentira" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "mentiría" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mentira ← emntira · menitra · menntira · mentiar · mentirra · mentria · menttira · metnira

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mentira" for "mentiría" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mentira" is a noun and "mentiría" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mentira" or "mentiría" show up more?
"mentira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,037 in our Spanish list, against #47,934 for "mentiría". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mentira" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mentiría" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #105,827 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mentira" and "mentiría" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mentiría vs montería". 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 #105,827 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