llegadovsllegadosWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,091
“llegado” frequency rank
#12,857
“llegados” frequency rank
13948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature llegado llegados
Definition Cercano. Forma del plural de llegado, participio de llegar o de llegarse.

Where the eye mixes llegado and llegados

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. llegado runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against llegados's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
llegado
8 ch
llegados

Look-alike desk: llegado vs llegados

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: llegado is [ʝeˈɣ̞að̞o] while llegados is [ʝeˈɣ̞að̞os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “llegado” sits inside “llegados”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

llegado is recorded at frequency rank #1,091, classified as anadj, pronounced [ʝeˈɣ̞að̞o]. llegados is at rank #12,857, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [ʝeˈɣ̞að̞os].

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 13948, this pair ranks #285,960 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of llegado vs llegados

Shared letters: adeglo. Private to "llegado": -. Private to "llegados": s.

"llegado" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "llegados" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • llegado ← lelgado · lleagdo · llegaddo · llegaod · llegdao · lleggado · llgeado
  • llegados ← lelgados · lleagdos · llegaddos · llegadoss · llegadso · llegaods · llegdaos · lleggados

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "llegado" for "llegados" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "llegado" is an adjective and "llegados" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "llegado" or "llegados"?
"llegado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,091 in our Spanish list, against #12,857 for "llegados". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "llegado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "llegados" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #285,960 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "llegado" and "llegados" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "llegados vs llenamos". 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 #285,960 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