publicabanvspublicadasWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: publicaban is a verb, publicadas is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“publicaban” is a verb and “publicadas” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,407
“publicaban” frequency rank
#7,483
“publicadas” frequency rank
46890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature publicaban publicadas
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de publicar. Forma del femenino plural de publicado, participio de publicar.

Where the eye mixes publicaban and publicadas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
publicaban
10 ch
publicadas

Look-alike desk: publicaban vs publicadas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: publicaban is [puβ̞liˈkaβ̞ãn] while publicadas is [puβ̞liˈkað̞as]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

publicaban is recorded at frequency rank #39,407, classified as averb, pronounced [puβ̞liˈkaβ̞ãn]. publicadas is at rank #7,483, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [puβ̞liˈkað̞as].

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 46890, this pair ranks #123,153 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of publicaban vs publicadas

Shared letters: abcilpu. Private to "publicaban": n. Private to "publicadas": ds.

"publicaban" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC  ·  "publicadas" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • publicabanpbulicaban · ppublicaban · pubblicaban · pubilcaban · publciaban · publiacban · publicaabn · publicabann
  • publicadaspbulicadas · ppublicadas · pubblicadas · pubilcadas · publciadas · publiacdas · publicaads · publicadass

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "publicaban" and "publicadas" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "publicaban" is a verb and "publicadas" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "publicaban" or "publicadas"?
"publicadas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,483 in our Spanish list, against #39,407 for "publicaban". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "publicaban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "publicadas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,153 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "publicaban" and "publicadas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "publicaban vs publicarán". 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 #123,153 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