ardevsartoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: arde is a verb, arto is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“arde” is a verb and “arto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,394
“arde” frequency rank
#40,136
“arto” frequency rank
53530
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arde arto
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de arder. Cambronera.

Where the eye mixes arde and arto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
arde
4 ch
arto

Visual trap between arde and arto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arde is [ˈaɾð̞e] while arto is [ˈaɾt̪o]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arde is recorded at frequency rank #13,394, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈaɾð̞e]. arto is at rank #40,136, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɾt̪o].

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 53530, this pair ranks #87,433 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arde vs arto

Shared letters: ar. Private to "arde": de. Private to "arto": ot.

"arde" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "arto" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ardeadre · ardde · ared · arrde · rade
  • artoarot · arrto · artto · atro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arde" for "arto" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arde" is a verb and "arto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "arde" or "arto" show up more?
"arde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,394 in our Spanish list, against #40,136 for "arto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #87,433 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arde" and "arto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "anta vs arto". 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 #87,433 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