pensadosvspintadosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#27,345
“pensados” frequency rank
#16,939
“pintados” frequency rank
44284
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pensados pintados
Definition Forma del plural de pensado, participio de pensar. Forma del plural de pintado, participio de pintar.

Where the eye mixes pensados and pintados

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. pensados and pintados follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
pensados
8 ch
pintados

Look-alike desk: pensados vs pintados

A purely visual mix-up. pensados ([pẽnˈsað̞os]) and pintados ([pĩn̪ˈt̪að̞os]) 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 44284, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pensados is recorded at frequency rank #27,345, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [pẽnˈsað̞os]. pintados is at rank #16,939, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [pĩn̪ˈt̪að̞os].

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 44284, this pair ranks #137,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pensados vs pintados

Shared letters: adnops. Private to "pensados": e. Private to "pintados": it.

"pensados" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "pintados" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pensados ← epnsados · penasdos · pennsados · pensaddos · pensadoss · pensadso · pensaods · pensdaos
  • pintados ← ipntados · pinatdos · pinntados · pintaddos · pintadoss · pintadso · pintaods · pintdaos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pensados" and "pintados" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([pẽnˈsað̞os] versus [pĩn̪ˈt̪að̞os]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pensados" or "pintados" show up more?
"pintados" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,939 in our Spanish list, against #27,345 for "pensados". 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 "pensados" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pintados" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pensados" and "pintados" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pensados vs prensado". 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 #137,923 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