adelantanvsadelantandoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,420
“adelantan” frequency rank
#31,184
“adelantando” frequency rank
65604
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adelantan adelantando
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de adelantar o de adelantarse. Gerundio de adelantar.

Where the eye mixes adelantan and adelantando

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. adelantan runs 9 letters (VCVCVCCVC) against adelantando's 11 (VCVCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
adelantan
11 ch
adelantando

Look-alike desk: adelantan vs adelantando

A purely visual mix-up. adelantan ([að̞eˈlãn̪t̪ãn]) and adelantando ([að̞elãn̪ˈt̪ãn̪d̪o]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “adelantan” sits inside “adelantando”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65604, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adelantan is recorded at frequency rank #34,420, classified as averb, pronounced [að̞eˈlãn̪t̪ãn]. adelantando is at rank #31,184, tagged as averb, pronounced [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪ãn̪d̪o].

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 65604, this pair ranks #42,159 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of adelantan vs adelantando

Shared letters: adelnt. Private to "adelantan": -. Private to "adelantando": o.

"adelantan" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCCVC  ·  "adelantando" · 11 letters · shape VCVCVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adelantanaddelantan · adealntan · adelanatn · adelanntan · adelantann · adelantna · adelanttan · adelatnan
  • adelantandoaddelantando · adealntando · adelanatndo · adelanntando · adelantadno · adelantanddo · adelantanndo · adelantanod

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "adelantan" and "adelantando" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([að̞eˈlãn̪t̪ãn] versus [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪ãn̪d̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "adelantan" or "adelantando" show up more?
"adelantando" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,184 in our Spanish list, against #34,420 for "adelantan". 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 "adelantan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adelantando" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,159 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adelantan" and "adelantando" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adelantan vs adelantaron". 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 #42,159 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