prohibióvsprohibirWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,683
“prohibió” frequency rank
#6,104
“prohibir” frequency rank
18787
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prohibió prohibir
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de prohibir. Negar el permiso o la posibilidad para la ejecución de una acción (o modo de obrar) o para el uso, consumo o presencia de algo en determinadas circunstancias.

Where the eye mixes prohibió and prohibir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. prohibió (CCVCVCVV) and prohibir (CCVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
prohibió
8 ch
prohibir

Why the eye confuses prohibió with prohibir

A purely visual mix-up. prohibió ([pɾojˈβ̞jo]) and prohibir ([pɾojˈβ̞iɾ]) 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 a single letter - ó in “prohibió” becomes r in “prohibir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prohibió is recorded at frequency rank #12,683, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾojˈβ̞jo]. prohibir is at rank #6,104, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾojˈβ̞iɾ].

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 18787, this pair ranks #266,471 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prohibió vs prohibir

Shared letters: bhiopr. Private to "prohibió": ó. Private to "prohibir": -.

"prohibió" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "prohibir" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prohibir ← porhibir · pprohibir · prhoibir · prohbiir · prohhibir · prohibbir · prohibirr · prohibri

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prohibió" for "prohibir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɾojˈβ̞jo] versus [pɾojˈβ̞iɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "prohibió" or "prohibir"?
"prohibir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,104 in our Spanish list, against #12,683 for "prohibió". 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 "prohibió" and "prohibir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prohibió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prohibir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,471 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prohibió" and "prohibir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prohíba vs prohibió". 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 #266,471 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