pálidavspedidaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#20,175
“pálida” frequency rank
#40,998
“pedida” frequency rank
61173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pálida pedida
Definition Mala noticia o serie de sucesos desafortunados para una persona. Forma del femenino de pedido, participio de pedir.

Where the eye mixes pálida and pedida

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pálida and pedida follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
pálida
6 ch
pedida

Look-alike desk: pálida vs pedida

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pálida is [ˈpalið̞a] while pedida is [peˈð̞ið̞a]. 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 61173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pálida is recorded at frequency rank #20,175, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpalið̞a]. pedida is at rank #40,998, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [peˈð̞ið̞a].

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 61173, this pair ranks #56,390 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pálida vs pedida

Shared letters: adip. Private to "pálida": lá. Private to "pedida": e.

"pálida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pedida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pedida ← epdida · pdeida · peddia · peddida · pediad · pedidda · peidda · ppedida

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pálida" for "pedida" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pálida" is a noun and "pedida" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pálida" or "pedida" show up more?
"pálida" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,175 in our Spanish list, against #40,998 for "pedida". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pálida" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pedida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,390 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pálida" and "pedida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedida vs pulida". 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 #56,390 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