guardavsguardasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“guarda” and “guardas” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,848
“guarda” frequency rank
#14,604
“guardas” frequency rank
18452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guarda guardas
Definition Persona que cuida o custodia algo. Forma del plural de guarda.

Where the eye mixes guarda and guardas

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

6 ch
guarda
7 ch
guardas

Visual trap between guarda and guardas

A purely visual mix-up. guarda ([ˈgwaɾð̞a]) and guardas ([ˈgwaɾð̞as]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “guarda” sits inside “guardas”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18452, 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]. guardas is at rank #14,604, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈgwaɾð̞as].

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 18452, this pair ranks #267,861 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of guarda vs guardas

Shared letters: adgru. Private to "guarda": -. Private to "guardas": s.

"guarda" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "guardas" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guardagaurda · gguarda · guadra · guarad · guardda · guarrda · gurada · ugarda
  • guardasgaurdas · gguardas · guadras · guarads · guardass · guarddas · guardsa · guarrdas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "guarda" and "guardas" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈgwaɾð̞a] versus [ˈgwaɾð̞as]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "guarda" or "guardas"?
"guarda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,848 in our Spanish list, against #14,604 for "guardas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "guarda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guardas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,861 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guarda" and "guardas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guardará vs guardas". 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 #267,861 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