manchadavsmanchadoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#31,432
“manchada” frequency rank
#20,736
“manchado” frequency rank
52168
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manchada manchado
Definition Forma del femenino de manchado, participio de manchar. Que está salpicado de manchas

Where the eye mixes manchada and manchado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. manchada and manchado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
manchada
8 ch
manchado

Look-alike desk: manchada vs manchado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manchada is [mãnʲˈt͡ʃað̞a] while manchado is [mãnʲˈt͡ʃað̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “manchada” becomes o in “manchado”, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manchada is recorded at frequency rank #31,432, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [mãnʲˈt͡ʃað̞a]. manchado is at rank #20,736, tagged as anadj, pronounced [mãnʲˈt͡ʃað̞o].

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 52168, this pair ranks #94,052 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manchada vs manchado

Shared letters: acdhmn. Private to "manchada": -. Private to "manchado": o.

"manchada" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV  ·  "manchado" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manchadaamnchada · macnhada · mancahda · mancchada · manchaad · manchadda · manchdaa · manchhada
  • manchadoamnchado · macnhado · mancahdo · mancchado · manchaddo · manchaod · manchdao · manchhado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "manchada" and "manchado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manchada" is a participle and "manchado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "manchada" or "manchado"?
"manchado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,736 in our Spanish list, against #31,432 for "manchada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "manchada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manchado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #94,052 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manchada" and "manchado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "machaca vs manchada". 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 #94,052 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