protegíavsprotegióConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,802
“protegía” frequency rank
#35,209
“protegió” frequency rank
65011
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes protegía and protegió

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

8 ch
protegía
8 ch
protegió

Why the eye confuses protegía with protegió

A purely visual mix-up. protegía ([pɾot̪eˈxia]) and protegió ([pɾot̪eˈxjo]) 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 65011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

protegía is recorded at frequency rank #29,802, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾot̪eˈxia]. protegió is at rank #35,209, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾot̪eˈxjo].

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 65011, this pair ranks #43,893 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of protegía vs protegió

Shared letters: egoprt. Private to "protegía": aí. Private to "protegió": ió.

"protegía" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "protegió" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "protegía" and "protegió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([pɾot̪eˈxia] versus [pɾot̪eˈxjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "protegía" or "protegió" show up more?
"protegía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,802 in our Spanish list, against #35,209 for "protegió". 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 "protegía" and "protegió" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "protegía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "protegió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,893 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "protegía" and "protegió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prometio vs protegió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #43,893 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