manchadavsmarchadoConfusable pair

Quick tell: manchada is a participle, marchado is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#31,432
“manchada” frequency rank
#20,120
“marchado” frequency rank
51552
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manchada marchado
Definition Forma del femenino de manchado, participio de manchar. Participio de marchar o de marcharse.

Where the eye mixes manchada and marchado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. manchada and marchado 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
marchado

Why the eye confuses manchada with marchado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manchada is [mãnʲˈt͡ʃað̞a] while marchado is [maɾˈt͡ʃað̞o]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51552, 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]. marchado is at rank #20,120, tagged as averb, pronounced [maɾˈt͡ʃað̞o].

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 51552, this pair ranks #97,303 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manchada vs marchado

Shared letters: acdhm. Private to "manchada": n. Private to "marchado": or.

"manchada" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV  ·  "marchado" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manchadaamnchada · macnhada · mancahda · mancchada · manchaad · manchadda · manchdaa · manchhada
  • marchadoamrchado · macrhado · marcahdo · marcchado · marchaddo · marchaod · marchdao · marchhado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manchada" for "marchado" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manchada" is a participle and "marchado" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "manchada" or "marchado"?
"marchado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,120 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manchada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marchado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,303 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manchada" and "marchado" 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 #97,303 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