permitavspermitíaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,185
“permita” frequency rank
#8,292
“permitía” frequency rank
12477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permita permitía
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de permitir o de permitirse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de permitir o de permitirse.

Where the eye mixes permita and permitía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
permita
8 ch
permitía

Look-alike desk: permita vs permitía

A purely visual mix-up. permita ([peɾˈmit̪a]) and permitía ([peɾmiˈt̪ia]) 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 12477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permita is recorded at frequency rank #4,185, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾˈmit̪a]. permitía is at rank #8,292, tagged as averb, pronounced [peɾmiˈt̪ia].

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 12477, this pair ranks #291,415 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of permita vs permitía

Shared letters: aeimprt. Private to "permita": -. Private to "permitía": í.

"permita" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "permitía" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permitaeprmita · pemrita · perimta · permiat · permitta · permmita · permtia · perrmita

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "permita" for "permitía" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([peɾˈmit̪a] versus [peɾmiˈt̪ia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "permita" or "permitía" show up more?
"permita" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,185 in our Spanish list, against #8,292 for "permitía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "permita" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permitía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #291,415 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permita" and "permitía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permitía vs permuta". 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 #291,415 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