perdonóvsperíodoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: perdonó is a verb, período is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“perdonó” is a verb and “período” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,176
“perdonó” frequency rank
#1,388
“período” frequency rank
27564
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perdonó período
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de perdonar. Tiempo que abarca toda la duración de una cosa

Where the eye mixes perdonó and período

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. perdonó (CVCCVCV) and período (CVCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
perdonó
7 ch
período

Why the eye confuses perdonó with período

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perdonó is [peɾð̞oˈno] while período is [peˈɾioð̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27564, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perdonó is recorded at frequency rank #26,176, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾð̞oˈno]. período is at rank #1,388, tagged as anoun, pronounced [peˈɾioð̞o].

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 27564, this pair ranks #226,213 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perdonó vs período

Shared letters: deopr. Private to "perdonó": nó. Private to "período": í.

"perdonó" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "período" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perdonó" for "período" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perdonó" is a verb and "período" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "perdonó" or "período" show up more?
"período" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,388 in our Spanish list, against #26,176 for "perdonó". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "perdonó" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "período" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #226,213 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perdonó" and "período" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peldaño vs perdonó". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #226,213 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