prohibíavsprohibióWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,191
“prohibía” frequency rank
#12,683
“prohibió” frequency rank
38874
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prohibía prohibió
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de prohibir. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de prohibir.

Where the eye mixes prohibía and prohibió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. prohibía and prohibió follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
prohibía
8 ch
prohibió

Look-alike desk: prohibía vs prohibió

A purely visual mix-up. prohibía ([pɾojˈβ̞ia]) and prohibió ([pɾojˈβ̞jo]) 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 38874, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prohibía is recorded at frequency rank #26,191, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾojˈβ̞ia]. prohibió is at rank #12,683, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾojˈβ̞jo].

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 38874, this pair ranks #167,618 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prohibía vs prohibió

Shared letters: bhiopr. Private to "prohibía": aí. Private to "prohibió": ó.

"prohibía" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "prohibió" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prohibía" for "prohibió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɾojˈβ̞ia] versus [pɾojˈβ̞jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "prohibía" vs "prohibió" - which ranks higher?
"prohibió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,683 in our Spanish list, against #26,191 for "prohibía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "prohibía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prohibió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,618 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prohibía" and "prohibió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prohíba vs prohibía". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #167,618 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