padecíavspadecidoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,951
“padecía” frequency rank
#33,260
“padecido” frequency rank
60211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature padecía padecido
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de padecer. Participio de padecer.

Where the eye mixes padecía and padecido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. padecía runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against padecido's 8 (CVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
padecía
8 ch
padecido

Why the eye confuses padecía with padecido

A purely visual mix-up. padecía ([pað̞eˈsia]) and padecido ([pað̞eˈsið̞o]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

padecía is recorded at frequency rank #26,951, classified as averb, pronounced [pað̞eˈsia]. padecido is at rank #33,260, tagged as averb, pronounced [pað̞eˈsið̞o].

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 60211, this pair ranks #59,757 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of padecía vs padecido

Shared letters: acdep. Private to "padecía": í. Private to "padecido": io.

"padecía" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "padecido" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • padecido ← apdecido · padceido · paddecido · padeccido · padecdio · padeciddo · padeciod · padeicdo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "padecía" and "padecido" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([pað̞eˈsia] versus [pað̞eˈsið̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "padecía" vs "padecido" - which ranks higher?
"padecía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,951 in our Spanish list, against #33,260 for "padecido". 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 "padecía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "padecido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,757 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "padecía" and "padecido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "padecido vs padeció". 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 #59,757 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