leídavslerdoTell them apart

Quick tell: leída is a participle, lerdo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#23,840
“leída” frequency rank
#33,687
“lerdo” frequency rank
57527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leída lerdo
Definition Forma del femenino de leído, participio de leer. Dícese de una persona: de poca inteligencia.

Where the eye mixes leída and lerdo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. leída (CVVCV) and lerdo (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
leída
5 ch
lerdo

Look-alike desk: leída vs lerdo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leída is [leˈið̞a] while lerdo is [ˈleɾð̞o]. 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 (participle vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leída is recorded at frequency rank #23,840, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [leˈið̞a]. lerdo is at rank #33,687, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈleɾð̞o].

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 57527, this pair ranks #70,168 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leída vs lerdo

Shared letters: del. Private to "leída": aí. Private to "lerdo": or.

"leída" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "lerdo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lerdo ← elrdo · ledro · lerddo · lerod · lerrdo · llerdo · lredo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leída" for "lerdo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leída" is a participle and "lerdo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "leída" vs "lerdo" - which ranks higher?
"leída" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,840 in our Spanish list, against #33,687 for "lerdo". 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 "leída" and "lerdo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leída" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lerdo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,168 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leída" and "lerdo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ledo vs lerdo". 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 #70,168 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