respondevsrespondíWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,366
“responde” frequency rank
#14,224
“respondí” frequency rank
16590
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature responde respondí
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de responder. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de responder.

Where the eye mixes responde and respondí

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

8 ch
responde
8 ch
respondí

Why the eye confuses responde with respondí

A purely visual mix-up. responde ([resˈpõn̪d̪e]) and respondí ([respõn̪ˈd̪i]) 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 a single letter - e in “responde” becomes í in “respondí”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

responde is recorded at frequency rank #2,366, classified as averb, pronounced [resˈpõn̪d̪e]. respondí is at rank #14,224, tagged as averb, pronounced [respõn̪ˈd̪i].

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 16590, this pair ranks #275,528 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of responde vs respondí

Shared letters: denoprs. Private to "responde": -. Private to "respondí": í.

"responde" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "respondí" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • responde ← ersponde · repsonde · resopnde · respnode · respodne · respondde · responed · responnde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "responde" for "respondí" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([resˈpõn̪d̪e] versus [respõn̪ˈd̪i]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "responde" or "respondí"?
"responde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,366 in our Spanish list, against #14,224 for "respondí". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "responde" and "respondí" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "responde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "respondí" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,528 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "responde" and "respondí" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "respondí vs respondían". 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 #275,528 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