quitabanvsquitaráWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,230
“quitaban” frequency rank
#32,835
“quitará” frequency rank
82065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quitaban quitará
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de quitar o de quitarse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de quitar o de quitarse.

Where the eye mixes quitaban and quitará

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. quitaban runs 8 letters (CVVCVCVC) against quitará's 7 (CVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
quitaban
7 ch
quitará

Why the eye confuses quitaban with quitará

A purely visual mix-up. quitaban ([kiˈt̪aβ̞ãn]) and quitará ([kit̪aˈɾa]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82065, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quitaban is recorded at frequency rank #49,230, classified as averb, pronounced [kiˈt̪aβ̞ãn]. quitará is at rank #32,835, tagged as averb, pronounced [kit̪aˈɾa].

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 82065, this pair ranks #9,643 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of quitaban vs quitará

Shared letters: aiqtu. Private to "quitaban": bn. Private to "quitará": rá.

"quitaban" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC  ·  "quitará" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quitaban ← qiutaban · qquitaban · quiatban · quitaabn · quitabann · quitabban · quitabna · quitavan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "quitaban" for "quitará" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kiˈt̪aβ̞ãn] versus [kit̪aˈɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "quitaban" vs "quitará" - which ranks higher?
"quitará" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,835 in our Spanish list, against #49,230 for "quitaban". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quitaban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quitará" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,643 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quitaban" and "quitará" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quemaban vs quitaban". 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 #9,643 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