partíavsperdíaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,043
“partía” frequency rank
#14,670
“perdía” frequency rank
45713
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partía perdía
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de partir o de partirse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de perder o de perderse.

Where the eye mixes partía and perdía

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

6 ch
partía
6 ch
perdía

Look-alike desk: partía vs perdía

A purely visual mix-up. partía ([paɾˈt̪ia]) and perdía ([peɾˈð̞ia]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45713, 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]. perdía is at rank #14,670, tagged as averb, pronounced [peɾˈð̞ia].

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 45713, this pair ranks #129,847 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of partía vs perdía

Shared letters: aprí. Private to "partía": t. Private to "perdía": de.

"partía" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "perdía" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "partía" and "perdía" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([paɾˈt̪ia] versus [peɾˈð̞ia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "partía" or "perdía"?
"perdía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,670 in our Spanish list, against #31,043 for "partía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "partía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,847 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partía" and "perdía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "partía vs partían". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #129,847 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