permitenvspermitíaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,739
“permiten” frequency rank
#8,292
“permitía” frequency rank
11031
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permiten permitía
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de permitir o de permitirse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de permitir o de permitirse.

Where the eye mixes permiten and permitía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. permiten (CVCCVCVC) and permitía (CVCCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
permiten
8 ch
permitía

Visual trap between permiten and permitía

A purely visual mix-up. permiten ([peɾˈmit̪ẽn]) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11031, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permiten is recorded at frequency rank #2,739, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾˈmit̪ẽn]. 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 11031, this pair ranks #296,507 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of permiten vs permitía

Shared letters: eimprt. Private to "permiten": n. Private to "permitía": aí.

"permiten" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "permitía" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permiten ← eprmiten · pemriten · perimten · permietn · permitenn · permitne · permitten · permmiten

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "permiten" and "permitía" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([peɾˈmit̪ẽn] versus [peɾmiˈt̪ia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "permiten" or "permitía"?
"permiten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,739 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "permiten" 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 #296,507 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permiten" 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 #296,507 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