opiniónvsoponíanWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#630
“opinión” frequency rank
#28,855
“oponían” frequency rank
29485
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature opinión oponían
Definition Grado personal de verdad, impresión o certeza que alguien se ha formado sobre algo, especialmente en casos cuestionables; perspectiva o punto de vista de alguien sobre un tema, situación o asunto. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de oponer o de oponerse.

Where the eye mixes opinión and oponían

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

7 ch
opinión
7 ch
oponían

Why the eye confuses opinión with oponían

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: opinión is [opiˈnjõn] while oponían is [opoˈniãn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

opinión is recorded at frequency rank #630, classified as anoun, pronounced [opiˈnjõn]. oponían is at rank #28,855, tagged as averb, pronounced [opoˈniãn].

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 29485, this pair ranks #216,770 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of opinión vs oponían

Shared letters: nop. Private to "opinión": ió. Private to "oponían": aí.

"opinión" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC  ·  "oponían" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "opinión" for "oponían" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "opinión" is a noun and "oponían" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "opinión" or "oponían"?
"opinión" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #630 in our Spanish list, against #28,855 for "oponían". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "opinión" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "oponían" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,770 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "opinión" and "oponían" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "opongan vs oponían". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #216,770 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