pendevspienseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,734
“pende” frequency rank
#5,339
“piense” frequency rank
42073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pende piense
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pender. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de pensar.

Where the eye mixes pende and piense

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pende
6 ch
piense

Visual trap between pende and piense

A purely visual mix-up. pende ([ˈpẽn̪d̪e]) and piense ([ˈpjẽnse]) 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 42073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pende is recorded at frequency rank #36,734, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpẽn̪d̪e]. piense is at rank #5,339, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpjẽnse].

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 42073, this pair ranks #150,235 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pende vs piense

Shared letters: enp. Private to "pende": d. Private to "piense": is.

"pende" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "piense" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pendeepnde · pedne · pendde · pened · pennde · pnede · ppende
  • pienseipense · peinse · pience · pienes · piennse · piensse · piesne · pinese

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pende" for "piense" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpẽn̪d̪e] versus [ˈpjẽnse]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pende" vs "piense" - which ranks higher?
"piense" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,339 in our Spanish list, against #36,734 for "pende". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "pende" and "piense" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "piense" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #150,235 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pende" and "piense" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pence vs pende". 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 #150,235 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