indicabavsindicadoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,617
“indicaba” frequency rank
#5,843
“indicado” frequency rank
22460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indicaba indicado
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de indicar. El medio que emplea el médico para combatir la enfermedad.

Where the eye mixes indicaba and indicado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. indicaba and indicado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
indicaba
8 ch
indicado

Visual trap between indicaba and indicado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: indicaba is [ĩn̪d̪iˈkaβ̞a] while indicado is [ĩn̪d̪iˈkað̞o]. 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 22460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indicaba is recorded at frequency rank #16,617, classified as averb, pronounced [ĩn̪d̪iˈkaβ̞a]. indicado is at rank #5,843, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ĩn̪d̪iˈkað̞o].

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 22460, this pair ranks #250,237 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of indicaba vs indicado

Shared letters: acdin. Private to "indicaba": b. Private to "indicado": o.

"indicaba" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "indicado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indicaba ← idnicaba · indciaba · inddicaba · indiacba · indicaab · indicabba · indicava · indicbaa
  • indicado ← idnicado · indciado · inddicado · indiacdo · indicaddo · indicaod · indiccado · indicdao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "indicaba" and "indicado" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "indicaba" is a verb and "indicado" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "indicaba" or "indicado" show up more?
"indicado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,843 in our Spanish list, against #16,617 for "indicaba". 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 "indicaba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "indicado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #250,237 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indicaba" and "indicado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indicaba vs indicaría". 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 #250,237 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