permitevspermitióTell them apart

Which to use

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

#900
“permite” frequency rank
#3,729
“permitió” frequency rank
4629
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permite permitió
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de permitir o de permitirse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de permitir o de permitirse.

Where the eye mixes permite and permitió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
permite
8 ch
permitió

Look-alike desk: permite vs permitió

A purely visual mix-up. permite ([peɾˈmit̪e]) and permitió ([peɾmiˈt̪jo]) 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 4629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permite is recorded at frequency rank #900, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾˈmit̪e]. permitió is at rank #3,729, tagged as averb, pronounced [peɾmiˈt̪jo].

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 4629, this pair ranks #315,624 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of permite vs permitió

Shared letters: eimprt. Private to "permite": -. Private to "permitió": ó.

"permite" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "permitió" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permiteeprmite · pemrite · perimte · permiet · permitte · permmite · permtie · perrmite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "permite" and "permitió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([peɾˈmit̪e] versus [peɾmiˈt̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "permite" or "permitió"?
"permite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #900 in our Spanish list, against #3,729 for "permitió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "permite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permitió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,624 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permite" and "permitió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permite 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 #315,624 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