precedióvspretendióWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,188
“precedió” frequency rank
#28,887
“pretendió” frequency rank
72075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature precedió pretendió
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 pretender.

Where the eye mixes precedió and pretendió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. precedió runs 8 letters (CCVCVCVV) against pretendió's 9 (CCVCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
precedió
9 ch
pretendió

Visual trap between precedió and pretendió

A purely visual mix-up. precedió ([pɾeseˈð̞jo]) and pretendió ([pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) 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 72075, 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]. pretendió is at rank #28,887, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪jo].

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 72075, this pair ranks #26,141 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of precedió vs pretendió

Shared letters: deipró. Private to "precedió": c. Private to "pretendió": nt.

"precedió" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "pretendió" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "precedió" and "pretendió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([pɾeseˈð̞jo] versus [pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "precedió" or "pretendió"?
"pretendió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,887 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "precedió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pretendió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,141 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "precedió" and "pretendió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "preceden vs precedió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #26,141 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