partíavspartíanTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,043
“partía” frequency rank
#49,847
“partían” frequency rank
80890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partía partían
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de partir o de partirse. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de partir o de partirse.

Where the eye mixes partía and partían

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. partía runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against partían's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
partía
7 ch
partían

Look-alike desk: partía vs partían

A purely visual mix-up. partía ([paɾˈt̪ia]) and partían ([paɾˈt̪iãn]) 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 extra letter(s) - “partía” sits inside “partían”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partía is recorded at frequency rank #31,043, classified as averb, pronounced [paɾˈt̪ia]. partían is at rank #49,847, tagged as averb, pronounced [paɾˈt̪iãn].

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 80890, this pair ranks #11,104 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of partía vs partían

Shared letters: aprtí. Private to "partía": -. Private to "partían": n.

"partía" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "partían" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "partía" and "partían" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([paɾˈt̪ia] versus [paɾˈt̪iãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "partía" vs "partían" - which ranks higher?
"partía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,043 in our Spanish list, against #49,847 for "partían". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "partía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "partían" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,104 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partía" and "partían" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "partían vs patín". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #11,104 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