vendanvsvendíanWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,899
“vendan” frequency rank
#19,592
“vendían” frequency rank
39491
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vendan vendían
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de vender o de venderse. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de vender o de venderse.

Where the eye mixes vendan and vendían

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vendan runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against vendían's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
vendan
7 ch
vendían

Visual trap between vendan and vendían

A purely visual mix-up. vendan ([ˈbẽn̪d̪ãn]) and vendían ([bẽn̪ˈd̪iãn]) 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 39491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vendan is recorded at frequency rank #19,899, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbẽn̪d̪ãn]. vendían is at rank #19,592, tagged as averb, pronounced [bẽn̪ˈd̪iãn].

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 39491, this pair ranks #164,175 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vendan vs vendían

Shared letters: adenv. Private to "vendan": -. Private to "vendían": í.

"vendan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "vendían" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vendan ← bendan · evndan · vednan · venadn · vendann · venddan · vendna · venndan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vendan" for "vendían" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbẽn̪d̪ãn] versus [bẽn̪ˈd̪iãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vendan" vs "vendían" - which ranks higher?
"vendían" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,592 in our Spanish list, against #19,899 for "vendan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vendan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vendían" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,175 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vendan" and "vendían" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vendan vs venías". 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 #164,175 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