ledovsleídosWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#46,033
“ledo” frequency rank
#24,213
“leídos” frequency rank
70246
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ledo leídos
Definition Alegre, contento. Forma del plural de leído, participio de leer.

Where the eye mixes ledo and leídos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ledo runs 4 letters (CVCV) against leídos's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
ledo
6 ch
leídos

Why the eye confuses ledo with leídos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ledo is [ˈleð̞ʊ] while leídos is [leˈið̞os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ledo is recorded at frequency rank #46,033, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈleð̞ʊ]. leídos is at rank #24,213, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [leˈið̞os].

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 70246, this pair ranks #30,145 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ledo vs leídos

Shared letters: delo. Private to "ledo": -. Private to "leídos": sí.

"ledo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "leídos" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ledo ← eldo · ldeo · leddo · leod · lledo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ledo" for "leídos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ledo" is an adjective and "leídos" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ledo" or "leídos" show up more?
"leídos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,213 in our Spanish list, against #46,033 for "ledo". 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 "ledo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leídos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,145 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ledo" and "leídos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ledo vs lens". 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 #30,145 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