respondevsrespondióWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,366
“responde” frequency rank
#3,147
“respondió” frequency rank
5513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes responde and respondió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
responde
9 ch
respondió

Look-alike desk: responde vs respondió

A purely visual mix-up. responde ([resˈpõn̪d̪e]) and respondió ([respõn̪ˈd̪jo]) 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 5513, 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]. respondió is at rank #3,147, tagged as averb, pronounced [respõn̪ˈd̪jo].

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 5513, this pair ranks #313,436 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of responde vs respondió

Shared letters: denoprs. Private to "responde": -. Private to "respondió": .

"responde" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "respondió" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • respondeersponde · repsonde · resopnde · respnode · respodne · respondde · responed · responnde

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "responde" and "respondió" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([resˈpõn̪d̪e] versus [respõn̪ˈd̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "responde" or "respondió" show up more?
"responde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,366 in our Spanish list, against #3,147 for "respondió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "responde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "respondió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #313,436 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "responde" and "respondió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "responde vs responderé". 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 #313,436 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