pícaravspisadaTell them apart

Quick tell: pícara is a adjective, pisada is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pícara” is an adjective and “pisada” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,151
“pícara” frequency rank
#46,123
“pisada” frequency rank
92274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pícara pisada
Definition Forma del femenino singular de pícaro. Forma del femenino de pisado, participio de pisar.

Where the eye mixes pícara and pisada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pícara and pisada follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
pícara
6 ch
pisada

Look-alike desk: pícara vs pisada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pícara is [ˈpikaɾa] while pisada is [piˈsað̞a]. 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 (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pícara is recorded at frequency rank #46,151, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈpikaɾa]. pisada is at rank #46,123, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [piˈsað̞a].

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 92274, this pair ranks #1,580 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pícara vs pisada

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pícara": crí. Private to "pisada": dis.

"pícara" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pisada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pisada ← ipsada · piasda · pisaad · pisadda · pisdaa · pissada · ppisada · psiada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pícara" for "pisada" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pícara" is an adjective and "pisada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pícara" or "pisada"?
"pisada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,123 in our Spanish list, against #46,151 for "pícara". 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 "pícara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pisada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,580 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pícara" and "pisada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pisada vs posado". 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 #1,580 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