mientanvsmientenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,815
“mientan” frequency rank
#12,645
“mienten” frequency rank
51460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mientan mienten
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de mentir. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de mentir.

Where the eye mixes mientan and mienten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. mientan and mienten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
mientan
7 ch
mienten

Look-alike desk: mientan vs mienten

A purely visual mix-up. mientan ([ˈmjẽn̪t̪ãn]) and mienten ([ˈmjẽn̪t̪ẽn]) 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 a single letter - a in “mientan” becomes e in “mienten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mientan is recorded at frequency rank #38,815, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmjẽn̪t̪ãn]. mienten is at rank #12,645, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmjẽn̪t̪ẽn].

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 51460, this pair ranks #97,772 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mientan vs mienten

Shared letters: eimnt. Private to "mientan": a. Private to "mienten": -.

"mientan" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "mienten" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mientan ← imentan · meintan · mienatn · mienntan · mientann · mientna · mienttan · mietnan
  • mienten ← imenten · meinten · mienetn · miennten · mientenn · mientne · mientten · mietnen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mientan" and "mienten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmjẽn̪t̪ãn] versus [ˈmjẽn̪t̪ẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mientan" or "mienten" show up more?
"mienten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,645 in our Spanish list, against #38,815 for "mientan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mientan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mienten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,772 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mientan" and "mienten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mientan vs militan". 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 #97,772 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