merecíavsmerecidaTell them apart

Quick tell: merecía is a verb, merecida is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“merecía” is a verb and “merecida” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,028
“merecía” frequency rank
#26,145
“merecida” frequency rank
36173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature merecía merecida
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de merecer o de merecerse. Forma del femenino de merecido.

Where the eye mixes merecía and merecida

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

7 ch
merecía
8 ch
merecida

Visual trap between merecía and merecida

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: merecía is [meɾeˈsia] while merecida is [meɾeˈsið̞a]. 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 (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

merecía is recorded at frequency rank #10,028, classified as averb, pronounced [meɾeˈsia]. merecida is at rank #26,145, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [meɾeˈsið̞a].

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 36173, this pair ranks #182,074 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of merecía vs merecida

Shared letters: acemr. Private to "merecía": í. Private to "merecida": di.

"merecía" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "merecida" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • merecidaemrecida · meercida · merceida · mereccida · merecdia · mereciad · merecidda · mereicda

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "merecía" and "merecida" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "merecía" is a verb and "merecida" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "merecía" or "merecida"?
"merecía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,028 in our Spanish list, against #26,145 for "merecida". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "merecía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "merecida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,074 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "merecía" and "merecida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merecías vs merecida". 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 #182,074 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