Which to use
“protegían” is a verb and “protegidas” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,205
- “protegían” frequency rank
- #12,228
- “protegidas” frequency rank
- 55433
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | protegían | protegidas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de proteger. | Forma del femenino plural de protegido, participio de proteger. |
Where the eye mixes protegían and protegidas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: protegían vs protegidas
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: protegían is [pɾot̪eˈxiãn] while protegidas is [pɾot̪eˈxið̞as]. 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 (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
protegían is recorded at frequency rank #43,205, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾot̪eˈxiãn]. protegidas is at rank #12,228, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [pɾot̪eˈxið̞as].
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 55433, this pair ranks #78,909 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of protegían vs protegidas
Shared letters: aegoprt. Private to "protegían": ní. Private to "protegidas": dis.
"protegían" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC · "protegidas" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- protegidas ← portegidas · pprotegidas · proetgidas · protegdias · proteggidas · protegiads · protegidass · protegiddas
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "protegían" for "protegidas" ever safe?
Which is more common, "protegían" or "protegidas"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "protegían" and "protegidas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "protegían" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "protegidas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #78,909 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "protegían" and "protegidas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "protegían vs protegió". 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 #78,909 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.