agarradosvsaterradosTell them apart

Quick tell: agarrados is a adjective, aterrados is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agarrados” is an adjective and “aterrados” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,908
“agarrados” frequency rank
#49,442
“aterrados” frequency rank
96350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agarrados aterrados
Definition Forma del plural de agarrado. Forma del plural de aterrado, participio de aterrar.

Where the eye mixes agarrados and aterrados

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. agarrados and aterrados follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
agarrados
9 ch
aterrados

Look-alike desk: agarrados vs aterrados

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agarrados is [aɣ̞aˈrað̞os] while aterrados is [at̪eˈrað̞os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agarrados is recorded at frequency rank #46,908, classified as anadj, pronounced [aɣ̞aˈrað̞os]. aterrados is at rank #49,442, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [at̪eˈrað̞os].

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 96350, this pair ranks #361 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of agarrados vs aterrados

Shared letters: adors. Private to "agarrados": g. Private to "aterrados": et.

"agarrados" · 9 letters · shape VCVCCVCVC  ·  "aterrados" · 9 letters · shape VCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agarradosaagrrados · agarados · agarardos · agarraddos · agarradoss · agarradso · agarraods · agarrdaos
  • aterradosaetrrados · aterados · aterardos · aterraddos · aterradoss · aterradso · aterraods · aterrdaos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agarrados" for "aterrados" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agarrados" is an adjective and "aterrados" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "agarrados" or "aterrados"?
"agarrados" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,908 in our Spanish list, against #49,442 for "aterrados". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "agarrados" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aterrados" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #361 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agarrados" and "aterrados" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aterradores vs aterrados". 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 #361 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