salíanvssalidaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: salían is a verb, salida is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“salían” is a verb and “salida” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,249
“salían” frequency rank
#1,182
“salida” frequency rank
13431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salían salida
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de salir o de salirse. Acción o efecto de salir o de salirse.

Where the eye mixes salían and salida

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
salían
6 ch
salida

Why the eye confuses salían with salida

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: salían is [saˈliãn] while salida is [saˈlið̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salían is recorded at frequency rank #12,249, classified as averb, pronounced [saˈliãn]. salida is at rank #1,182, tagged as anoun, pronounced [saˈlið̞a].

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 13431, this pair ranks #287,896 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of salían vs salida

Shared letters: als. Private to "salían": . Private to "salida": di.

"salían" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "salida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • salidaaslida · sailda · saldia · saliad · salidda · sallida · slaida · ssalida

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "salían" and "salida" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "salían" is a verb and "salida" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "salían" or "salida" show up more?
"salida" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,182 in our Spanish list, against #12,249 for "salían". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "salían" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "salida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,896 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salían" and "salida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "salían vs salman". 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 #287,896 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