reíanvsrienWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: reían is a verb, rien is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reían” is a verb and “rien” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,823
“reían” frequency rank
#30,237
“rien” frequency rank
60060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reían rien
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de reír o de reírse. Nada.

Where the eye mixes reían and rien

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
reían
4 ch
rien

Why the eye confuses reían with rien

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reían is [reˈiãn] while rien is [ʁjɛ̃]. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reían is recorded at frequency rank #29,823, classified as averb, pronounced [reˈiãn]. rien is at rank #30,237, tagged as apron, pronounced [ʁjɛ̃].

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 60060, this pair ranks #60,279 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of reían vs rien

Shared letters: enr. Private to "reían": . Private to "rien": i.

"reían" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "rien" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rieniren · rein · rienn · rine · rrien

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reían" for "rien" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reían" is a verb and "rien" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "reían" or "rien" show up more?
"reían" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,823 in our Spanish list, against #30,237 for "rien". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "reían" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rien" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,279 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reían" and "rien" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "riba vs rien". 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 #60,279 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