pretendevspretendióTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,799
“pretende” frequency rank
#28,887
“pretendió” frequency rank
31686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pretende pretendió
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pretender. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de pretender.

Where the eye mixes pretende and pretendió

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

8 ch
pretende
9 ch
pretendió

Look-alike desk: pretende vs pretendió

A purely visual mix-up. pretende ([pɾeˈt̪ẽn̪d̪e]) 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 31686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pretende is recorded at frequency rank #2,799, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾeˈt̪ẽn̪d̪e]. 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 31686, this pair ranks #205,827 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pretende vs pretendió

Shared letters: denprt. Private to "pretende": -. Private to "pretendió": ió.

"pretende" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "pretendió" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pretende ← pertende · ppretende · preetnde · pretedne · pretendde · pretened · pretennde · pretnede

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pretende" and "pretendió" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([pɾeˈt̪ẽn̪d̪e] versus [pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pretende" vs "pretendió" - which ranks higher?
"pretende" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,799 in our Spanish list, against #28,887 for "pretendió". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pretende" 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 #205,827 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pretende" and "pretendió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pretendas vs pretendió". 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 #205,827 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