respondanvsresponderTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,709
“respondan” frequency rank
#1,915
“responder” frequency rank
17624
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature respondan responder
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de responder. Contestar, satisfacer a lo que se pregunta o propone.

Where the eye mixes respondan and responder

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. respondan and responder follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
respondan
9 ch
responder

Visual trap between respondan and responder

A purely visual mix-up. respondan ([resˈpõn̪d̪ãn]) and responder ([respõn̪ˈd̪eɾ]) 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 17624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

respondan is recorded at frequency rank #15,709, classified as averb, pronounced [resˈpõn̪d̪ãn]. responder is at rank #1,915, tagged as averb, pronounced [respõn̪ˈd̪eɾ].

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 17624, this pair ranks #271,371 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of respondan vs responder

Shared letters: denoprs. Private to "respondan": a. Private to "responder": -.

"respondan" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "responder" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • respondan ← erspondan · repsondan · resopndan · respnodan · respodnan · responadn · respondann · responddan
  • responder ← ersponder · repsonder · resopnder · respnoder · respodner · respondder · responderr · respondre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "respondan" for "responder" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([resˈpõn̪d̪ãn] versus [respõn̪ˈd̪eɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "respondan" vs "responder" - which ranks higher?
"responder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,915 in our Spanish list, against #15,709 for "respondan". 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 "respondan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "responder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,371 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "respondan" and "responder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "respondan vs responderán". 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 #271,371 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