pidióvspilloConfusable pair

Quick tell: pidió is a verb, pillo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pidió” is a verb and “pillo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,874
“pidió” frequency rank
#18,643
“pillo” frequency rank
20517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pidió pillo
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de pedir. Se dice del pícaro que no tiene crianza ni buenos modales.

Where the eye mixes pidió and pillo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pidió
5 ch
pillo

Visual trap between pidió and pillo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pidió is [piˈð̞jo] while pillo is [ˈpiʝo]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pidió is recorded at frequency rank #1,874, classified as averb, pronounced [piˈð̞jo]. pillo is at rank #18,643, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈpiʝo].

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 20517, this pair ranks #259,005 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pidió vs pillo

Shared letters: ip. Private to "pidió": . Private to "pillo": lo.

"pidió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "pillo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pilloipllo · pilo · pilol · plilo · ppillo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pidió" for "pillo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pidió" is a verb and "pillo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pidió" or "pillo"?
"pidió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,874 in our Spanish list, against #18,643 for "pillo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pidió" and "pillo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pidió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pillo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #259,005 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pidió" and "pillo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillen vs pillo". 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 #259,005 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