padrinosvspodridosWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: padrinos is a noun, podridos is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“padrinos” is a noun and “podridos” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,160
“padrinos” frequency rank
#34,722
“podridos” frequency rank
57882
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature padrinos podridos
Definition Forma del plural de padrino. Forma del plural de podrido.

Where the eye mixes padrinos and podridos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. padrinos and podridos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
padrinos
8 ch
podridos

Look-alike desk: padrinos vs podridos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: padrinos is [paˈð̞ɾinos] while podridos is [poˈð̞ɾið̞os]. 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 (noun vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

padrinos is recorded at frequency rank #23,160, classified as anoun, pronounced [paˈð̞ɾinos]. podridos is at rank #34,722, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [poˈð̞ɾið̞os].

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 57882, this pair ranks #68,679 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of padrinos vs podridos

Shared letters: dioprs. Private to "padrinos": an. Private to "podridos": -.

"padrinos" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "podridos" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • padrinos ← apdrinos · paddrinos · padirnos · padrinnos · padrinoss · padrinso · padrions · padrnios
  • podridos ← opdridos · pdoridos · poddridos · podirdos · podrdios · podriddos · podridoss · podridso

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "padrinos" and "podridos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "padrinos" is a noun and "podridos" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "padrinos" or "podridos" show up more?
"padrinos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,160 in our Spanish list, against #34,722 for "podridos". 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 "padrinos" and "podridos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "padrinos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "podridos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,679 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "padrinos" and "podridos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "podríais vs podridos". 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 #68,679 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