adelantavsadelantarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,856
“adelanta” frequency rank
#12,961
“adelantar” frequency rank
30817
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adelanta adelantar
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de adelantar o de adelantarse. Pasar delante de otro. Realizar una acción antes que otro.

Where the eye mixes adelanta and adelantar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
adelanta
9 ch
adelantar

Visual trap between adelanta and adelantar

A purely visual mix-up. adelanta ([að̞eˈlãn̪t̪a]) and adelantar ([að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾ]) 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 extra letter(s) - “adelanta” sits inside “adelantar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adelanta is recorded at frequency rank #17,856, classified as averb, pronounced [að̞eˈlãn̪t̪a]. adelantar is at rank #12,961, tagged as averb, pronounced [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾ].

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 30817, this pair ranks #210,160 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of adelanta vs adelantar

Shared letters: adelnt. Private to "adelanta": -. Private to "adelantar": r.

"adelanta" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCCV  ·  "adelantar" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adelantaaddelanta · adealnta · adelanat · adelannta · adelantta · adelatna · adellanta · adelnata
  • adelantaraddelantar · adealntar · adelanatr · adelanntar · adelantarr · adelantra · adelanttar · adelatnar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "adelanta" for "adelantar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([að̞eˈlãn̪t̪a] versus [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "adelanta" or "adelantar"?
"adelantar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,961 in our Spanish list, against #17,856 for "adelanta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "adelanta" and "adelantar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "adelanta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adelantar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,160 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adelanta" and "adelantar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Adelaida vs adelanta". 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 #210,160 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