precedióvsprendióConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#43,188
“precedió” frequency rank
#16,423
“prendió” frequency rank
59611
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature precedió prendió
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de preceder. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de prender o de prenderse.

Where the eye mixes precedió and prendió

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

8 ch
precedió
7 ch
prendió

Why the eye confuses precedió with prendió

A purely visual mix-up. precedió ([pɾeseˈð̞jo]) and prendió ([pɾẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) 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 59611, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

precedió is recorded at frequency rank #43,188, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾeseˈð̞jo]. prendió is at rank #16,423, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾẽn̪ˈd̪jo].

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 59611, this pair ranks #61,993 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of precedió vs prendió

Shared letters: deipró. Private to "precedió": c. Private to "prendió": n.

"precedió" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "prendió" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "precedió" and "prendió" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([pɾeseˈð̞jo] versus [pɾẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "precedió" or "prendió" show up more?
"prendió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,423 in our Spanish list, against #43,188 for "precedió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "precedió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prendió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,993 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "precedió" and "prendió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "preceden vs precedió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #61,993 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