guardavsguardadaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: guarda is a noun, guardada is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“guarda” is a noun and “guardada” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,848
“guarda” frequency rank
#20,699
“guardada” frequency rank
24547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guarda guardada
Definition Persona que cuida o custodia algo. Forma del femenino de guardado, participio de guardar o de guardarse.

Where the eye mixes guarda and guardada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
guarda
8 ch
guardada

Why the eye confuses guarda with guardada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: guarda is [ˈgwaɾð̞a] while guardada is [gwaɾˈð̞að̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “guarda” sits inside “guardada”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24547, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guarda is recorded at frequency rank #3,848, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈgwaɾð̞a]. guardada is at rank #20,699, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [gwaɾˈð̞að̞a].

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 24547, this pair ranks #240,652 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of guarda vs guardada

Shared letters: adgru. Private to "guarda": -. Private to "guardada": -.

"guarda" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "guardada" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guardagaurda · gguarda · guadra · guarad · guardda · guarrda · gurada · ugarda
  • guardadagaurdada · gguardada · guadrada · guaradda · guardaad · guardadda · guarddaa · guarddada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "guarda" for "guardada" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "guarda" is a noun and "guardada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "guarda" or "guardada"?
"guarda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,848 in our Spanish list, against #20,699 for "guardada". 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 "guarda" and "guardada" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "guarda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guardada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #240,652 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guarda" and "guardada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guardada vs guardará". 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 #240,652 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