grandevsguardeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: grande is a adjective, guarde is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“grande” is an adjective and “guarde” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#353
“grande” frequency rank
#13,262
“guarde” frequency rank
13615
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grande guarde
Definition Superior en tamaño a un determinado patrón tomado como medida. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de guardar o de guardarse.

Where the eye mixes grande and guarde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. grande (CCVCCV) and guarde (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
grande
6 ch
guarde

Look-alike desk: grande vs guarde

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grande is [ˈgɾãn̪d̪e] while guarde is [ˈgwaɾð̞e]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grande is recorded at frequency rank #353, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈgɾãn̪d̪e]. guarde is at rank #13,262, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈgwaɾð̞e].

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 13615, this pair ranks #287,184 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grande vs guarde

Shared letters: adegr. Private to "grande": n. Private to "guarde": u.

"grande" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "guarde" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grande ← garnde · ggrande · gradne · grandde · graned · grannde · grnade · grrande
  • guarde ← gaurde · gguarde · guadre · guardde · guared · guarrde · gurade · ugarde

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grande" and "guarde" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grande" is an adjective and "guarde" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "grande" vs "guarde" - which ranks higher?
"grande" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #353 in our Spanish list, against #13,262 for "guarde". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "grande" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guarde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,184 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grande" and "guarde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glande vs guarde". 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 #287,184 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