perseguíavsperseguidaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: perseguía is a verb, perseguida is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“perseguía” is a verb and “perseguida” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,718
“perseguía” frequency rank
#24,272
“perseguida” frequency rank
51990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perseguía perseguida
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de perseguir. Forma del femenino de perseguido, participio de perseguir.

Where the eye mixes perseguía and perseguida

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

9 ch
perseguía
10 ch
perseguida

Look-alike desk: perseguía vs perseguida

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perseguía is [peɾseˈɣ̞ia] while perseguida is [peɾseˈɣ̞ið̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perseguía is recorded at frequency rank #27,718, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾseˈɣ̞ia]. perseguida is at rank #24,272, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [peɾseˈɣ̞ið̞a].

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 51990, this pair ranks #94,986 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perseguía vs perseguida

Shared letters: aegprsu. Private to "perseguía": í. Private to "perseguida": di.

"perseguía" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVV  ·  "perseguida" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perseguida ← eprseguida · perceguida · peresguida · perrseguida · persegguida · persegiuda · persegudia · perseguiad

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perseguía" for "perseguida" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perseguía" is a verb and "perseguida" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "perseguía" or "perseguida" show up more?
"perseguida" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,272 in our Spanish list, against #27,718 for "perseguía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "perseguía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perseguida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #94,986 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perseguía" and "perseguida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perseguía vs perseguidas". 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 #94,986 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