sientovssintióWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#462
“siento” frequency rank
#5,047
“sintió” frequency rank
5509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature siento sintió
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de sentar. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de sentir.

Where the eye mixes siento and sintió

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

6 ch
siento
6 ch
sintió

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. siento ([ˈsjẽn̪t̪o]) and sintió ([sĩn̪ˈt̪jo]) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

siento is recorded at frequency rank #462, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈsjẽn̪t̪o]. sintió is at rank #5,047, tagged as averb, pronounced [sĩn̪ˈt̪jo].

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 5509, this pair ranks #313,451 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of siento vs sintió

Shared letters: inst. Private to "siento": eo. Private to "sintió": ó.

"siento" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "sintió" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sientoisento · seinto · siennto · sienot · sientto · sietno · sineto · ssiento

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "siento" and "sintió" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsjẽn̪t̪o] versus [sĩn̪ˈt̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "siento" or "sintió"?
"siento" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #462 in our Spanish list, against #5,047 for "sintió". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list