apuntadavsapuntadoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: apuntada is a participle, apuntado is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“apuntada” is a participle and “apuntado” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,126
“apuntada” frequency rank
#15,279
“apuntado” frequency rank
60405
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apuntada apuntado
Definition Forma del femenino de apuntado, participio de apuntar o de apuntarse. Participio de apuntar o de apuntarse.

Where the eye mixes apuntada and apuntado

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

8 ch
apuntada
8 ch
apuntado

Visual trap between apuntada and apuntado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: apuntada is [apũn̪ˈt̪að̞a] while apuntado is [apũn̪ˈt̪að̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “apuntada” becomes o in “apuntado”, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apuntada is recorded at frequency rank #45,126, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [apũn̪ˈt̪að̞a]. apuntado is at rank #15,279, tagged as averb, pronounced [apũn̪ˈt̪að̞o].

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 60405, this pair ranks #59,061 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of apuntada vs apuntado

Shared letters: adnptu. Private to "apuntada": -. Private to "apuntado": o.

"apuntada" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV  ·  "apuntado" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apuntada ← apnutada · appuntada · apunatda · apunntada · apuntaad · apuntadda · apuntdaa · apunttada
  • apuntado ← apnutado · appuntado · apunatdo · apunntado · apuntaddo · apuntaod · apuntdao · apunttado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "apuntada" and "apuntado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "apuntada" is a participle and "apuntado" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "apuntada" or "apuntado" show up more?
"apuntado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,279 in our Spanish list, against #45,126 for "apuntada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "apuntada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apuntado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,061 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apuntada" and "apuntado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apuñala vs apuntada". 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 #59,061 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