podarvspolaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#46,126
“podar” frequency rank
#31,927
“pola” frequency rank
78053
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature podar pola
Definition Cortar las ramas superfluas de los árboles. Bebida alcohólica, espumosa, no destilada, obtenida por fermentación de la cebada germinada y malta en agua, y aromatizada con lúpulo, boj o casia. Colombia.

Where the eye mixes podar and pola

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. podar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against pola's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
podar
4 ch
pola

Why the eye confuses podar with pola

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: podar is [poˈð̞aɾ] while pola is [ˈpola]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

podar is recorded at frequency rank #46,126, classified as averb, pronounced [poˈð̞aɾ]. pola is at rank #31,927, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpola].

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 78053, this pair ranks #15,048 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of podar vs pola

Shared letters: aop. Private to "podar": dr. Private to "pola": l.

"podar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • podar ← opdar · pdoar · poadr · podarr · poddar · podra · ppodar
  • pola ← opla · ploa · poal · ppola

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "podar" for "pola" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "podar" is a verb and "pola" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "podar" or "pola" show up more?
"pola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,927 in our Spanish list, against #46,126 for "podar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "podar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,048 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "podar" and "pola" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "petar vs podar". 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 #15,048 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