Which to use
“pilla” is a verb and “pillado” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,541
- “pilla” frequency rank
- #16,671
- “pillado” frequency rank
- 40212
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pilla | pillado |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pillar. | Juego infantil que consiste en perseguir a alguien hasta tocarlo o atraparlo. Tiene muchas variantes, según se juegue de a dos o más personas y con reglas que faciliten o dificulten el pillar a los que escapan. |
Where the eye mixes pilla and pillado
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pilla runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against pillado's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pilla vs pillado
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pilla is [ˈpiʝa] while pillado is [piˈʝað̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “pilla” sits inside “pillado”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pilla is recorded at frequency rank #23,541, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpiʝa]. pillado is at rank #16,671, tagged as anoun, pronounced [piˈʝað̞o].
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 40212, this pair ranks #160,297 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pilla vs pillado
Shared letters: ailp. Private to "pilla": -. Private to "pillado": do.
"pilla" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pillado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pilla" for "pillado" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pilla" or "pillado" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pilla" and "pillado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pilla" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pillado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #160,297 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pilla" and "pillado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilla vs pillen". 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 #160,297 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.