permanecevspermanecíaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,239
“permanece” frequency rank
#21,789
“permanecía” frequency rank
27028
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permanece permanecía
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de permanecer. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de permanecer.

Where the eye mixes permanece and permanecía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. permanece runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCV) against permanecía's 10 (CVCCVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
permanece
10 ch
permanecía

Why the eye confuses permanece with permanecía

A purely visual mix-up. permanece ([peɾmaˈnese]) and permanecía ([peɾmaneˈsia]) 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 27028, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permanece is recorded at frequency rank #5,239, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾmaˈnese]. permanecía is at rank #21,789, tagged as averb, pronounced [peɾmaneˈsia].

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 27028, this pair ranks #228,806 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of permanece vs permanecía

Shared letters: acemnpr. Private to "permanece": -. Private to "permanecía": í.

"permanece" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "permanecía" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permanece ← eprmanece · pemranece · peramnece · permaence · permancee · permanecce · permaneec · permanese

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "permanece" and "permanecía" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([peɾmaˈnese] versus [peɾmaneˈsia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "permanece" or "permanecía"?
"permanece" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,239 in our Spanish list, against #21,789 for "permanecía". 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 "permanece" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permanecía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,806 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permanece" and "permanecía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permanecería vs permanecía". 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 #228,806 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