responderíavsrespondíaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,356
“respondería” frequency rank
#16,969
“respondía” frequency rank
55325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature respondería respondía
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del condicional de responder. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de responder.

Where the eye mixes respondería and respondía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. respondería runs 11 letters (CVCCVCCVCVV) against respondía's 9 (CVCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
respondería
9 ch
respondía

Visual trap between respondería and respondía

A purely visual mix-up. respondería ([respõn̪d̪eˈɾia]) and respondía ([respõn̪ˈd̪ia]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

respondería is recorded at frequency rank #38,356, classified as averb, pronounced [respõn̪d̪eˈɾia]. respondía is at rank #16,969, tagged as averb, pronounced [respõn̪ˈd̪ia].

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 55325, this pair ranks #79,416 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of respondería vs respondía

Shared letters: adenoprsí. Private to "respondería": -. Private to "respondía": -.

"respondería" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVV  ·  "respondía" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "respondería" for "respondía" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([respõn̪d̪eˈɾia] versus [respõn̪ˈd̪ia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "respondería" vs "respondía" - which ranks higher?
"respondía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,969 in our Spanish list, against #38,356 for "respondería". 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 "respondería" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "respondía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,416 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "respondería" and "respondía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "respondería vs respondiera". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #79,416 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