English homophones
bad/bade
"bad" is an adjective; "bade" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "bad" arrives as an adjective, while "bade" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "bad" then splits - "bad" (3 letters) vs "bade" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across bad, bade: abd. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
bad
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory abd · no private letters vs siblings
bade
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory abde · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "bad" when you mean: Of low quality.
- Write "bade" when you mean: simple past of bid
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- bade ← badde · bbade · bdae
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (bad, bade). Here's where to go from here.
- "bad" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #270 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: BOM · balm. Nearby cluster
- Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.