promesavsprometíaTell them apart

Quick tell: promesa is a noun, prometía is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“promesa” is a noun and “prometía” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,950
“promesa” frequency rank
#28,129
“prometía” frequency rank
32079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature promesa prometía
Definition Seguridad dada a alguien de palabra o por escrito de que se dará o se hará algo. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de prometer o de prometerse.

Where the eye mixes promesa and prometía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. promesa runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against prometía's 8 (CCVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
promesa
8 ch
prometía

Why the eye confuses promesa with prometía

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: promesa is [pɾoˈmesa] while prometía is [pɾomeˈt̪ia]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

promesa is recorded at frequency rank #3,950, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɾoˈmesa]. prometía is at rank #28,129, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾomeˈt̪ia].

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 32079, this pair ranks #203,842 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of promesa vs prometía

Shared letters: aemopr. Private to "promesa": s. Private to "prometía": tí.

"promesa" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "prometía" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • promesa ← pormesa · ppromesa · prmoesa · proemsa · promeas · promessa · prommesa · promsea

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "promesa" and "prometía" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "promesa" is a noun and "prometía" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "promesa" vs "prometía" - which ranks higher?
"promesa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,950 in our Spanish list, against #28,129 for "prometía". 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 "promesa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prometía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #203,842 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "promesa" and "prometía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prometía vs prometio". 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 #203,842 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