picanvspidasTell them apart

Which to use

“pican” and “pidas” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,333
“pican” frequency rank
#14,674
“pidas” frequency rank
47007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pican pidas
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de picar o de picarse. Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de subjuntivo de pedir.

Where the eye mixes pican and pidas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pican
5 ch
pidas

Why the eye confuses pican with pidas

A purely visual mix-up. pican ([ˈpikãn]) and pidas ([ˈpið̞as]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pican is recorded at frequency rank #32,333, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpikãn]. pidas is at rank #14,674, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpið̞as].

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 47007, this pair ranks #122,505 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pican vs pidas

Shared letters: aip. Private to "pican": cn. Private to "pidas": ds.

"pican" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pidas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picanipcan · pcian · piacn · picann · piccan · picna · ppican
  • pidasipdas · pdias · piads · pidass · piddas · pidsa · ppidas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pican" for "pidas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpikãn] versus [ˈpið̞as]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pican" or "pidas"?
"pidas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,674 in our Spanish list, against #32,333 for "pican". 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 "pican" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pidas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,505 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pican" and "pidas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pelan vs pican". 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 #122,505 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