suspendióvssuspensiónWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,721
“suspendió” frequency rank
#4,286
“suspensión” frequency rank
19007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature suspendió suspensión
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de suspender. Acción o efecto de suspender o colgar.

Where the eye mixes suspendió and suspensión

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. suspendió runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVV) against suspensión's 10 (CVCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
suspendió
10 ch
suspensión

Visual trap between suspendió and suspensión

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: suspendió is [suspẽn̪ˈd̪jo] while suspensión is [suspẽnˈsjõn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

suspendió is recorded at frequency rank #14,721, classified as averb, pronounced [suspẽn̪ˈd̪jo]. suspensión is at rank #4,286, tagged as anoun, pronounced [suspẽnˈsjõn].

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 19007, this pair ranks #265,560 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of suspendió vs suspensión

Shared letters: einpsuó. Private to "suspendió": d. Private to "suspensión": -.

"suspendió" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "suspensión" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "suspendió" for "suspensión" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "suspendió" is a verb and "suspensión" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "suspendió" or "suspensión"?
"suspensión" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,286 in our Spanish list, against #14,721 for "suspendió". 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 "suspendió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suspensión" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,560 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "suspendió" and "suspensión" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suspendan vs suspendió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #265,560 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