delicadasvsderivadasTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#21,968
“delicadas” frequency rank
#11,753
“derivadas” frequency rank
33721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delicadas derivadas
Definition Forma del femenino plural de delicado. Forma del femenino plural de derivado, participio de derivar o de derivarse.

Where the eye mixes delicadas and derivadas

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

9 ch
delicadas
9 ch
derivadas

Look-alike desk: delicadas vs derivadas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: delicadas is [d̪eliˈkað̞as] while derivadas is [d̪eɾiˈβ̞að̞as]. 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 33721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delicadas is recorded at frequency rank #21,968, classified as anadj, pronounced [d̪eliˈkað̞as]. derivadas is at rank #11,753, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [d̪eɾiˈβ̞að̞as].

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 33721, this pair ranks #195,246 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of delicadas vs derivadas

Shared letters: adeis. Private to "delicadas": cl. Private to "derivadas": rv.

"delicadas" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "derivadas" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delicadas ← ddelicadas · deilcadas · delciadas · deliacdas · delicaads · delicadass · delicaddas · delicadsa
  • derivadas ← dderivadas · deirvadas · deriavdas · deribadas · derivaads · derivadass · derivaddas · derivadsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "delicadas" for "derivadas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delicadas" is an adjective and "derivadas" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "delicadas" or "derivadas" show up more?
"derivadas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,753 in our Spanish list, against #21,968 for "delicadas". 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 "delicadas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "derivadas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #195,246 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delicadas" and "derivadas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delegadas vs delicadas". 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 #195,246 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