pretendidovspretendoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,970
“pretendido” frequency rank
#12,900
“pretendo” frequency rank
39870
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pretendido pretendo
Definition Participio de pretender. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de pretender.

Where the eye mixes pretendido and pretendo

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

10 ch
pretendido
8 ch
pretendo

Visual trap between pretendido and pretendo

A purely visual mix-up. pretendido ([pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o]) and pretendo ([pɾeˈt̪ẽn̪d̪o]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pretendido is recorded at frequency rank #26,970, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o]. pretendo is at rank #12,900, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾeˈt̪ẽn̪d̪o].

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 39870, this pair ranks #162,225 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pretendido vs pretendo

Shared letters: denoprt. Private to "pretendido": i. Private to "pretendo": -.

"pretendido" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVCV  ·  "pretendo" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pretendidopertendido · ppretendido · preetndido · pretednido · pretenddido · pretenddio · pretendiddo · pretendiod
  • pretendopertendo · ppretendo · preetndo · pretedno · pretenddo · pretenndo · pretenod · pretnedo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pretendido" for "pretendo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞o] versus [pɾeˈt̪ẽn̪d̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pretendido" or "pretendo" show up more?
"pretendo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,900 in our Spanish list, against #26,970 for "pretendido". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pretendido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pretendo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,225 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pretendido" and "pretendo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pretendido vs prevenido". 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 #162,225 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