persiguióvsprosiguióTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,598
“persiguió” frequency rank
#24,614
“prosiguió” frequency rank
49212
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature persiguió prosiguió
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de perseguir. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de proseguir.

Where the eye mixes persiguió and prosiguió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
persiguió
9 ch
prosiguió

Look-alike desk: persiguió vs prosiguió

A purely visual mix-up. persiguió ([peɾsiˈɣ̞jo]) and prosiguió ([pɾosiˈɣ̞jo]) 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 49212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

persiguió is recorded at frequency rank #24,598, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾsiˈɣ̞jo]. prosiguió is at rank #24,614, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾosiˈɣ̞jo].

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 49212, this pair ranks #110,103 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of persiguió vs prosiguió

Shared letters: giprsuó. Private to "persiguió": e. Private to "prosiguió": o.

"persiguió" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVV  ·  "prosiguió" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "persiguió" for "prosiguió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([peɾsiˈɣ̞jo] versus [pɾosiˈɣ̞jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "persiguió" vs "prosiguió" - which ranks higher?
"persiguió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,598 in our Spanish list, against #24,614 for "prosiguió". 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 "persiguió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prosiguió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,103 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "persiguió" and "prosiguió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perseguía vs persiguió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #110,103 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