podidovsposeídoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,525
“podido” frequency rank
#22,819
“poseído” frequency rank
24344
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature podido poseído
Definition Participio de poder. El que tiene en su cuerpo los espíritus malignos.

Where the eye mixes podido and poseído

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. podido runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against poseído's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
podido
7 ch
poseído

Visual trap between podido and poseído

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: podido is [poˈð̞ið̞o] while poseído is [poseˈið̞o]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24344, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

podido is recorded at frequency rank #1,525, classified as averb, pronounced [poˈð̞ið̞o]. poseído is at rank #22,819, tagged as anadj, pronounced [poseˈið̞o].

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 24344, this pair ranks #241,580 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of podido vs poseído

Shared letters: dop. Private to "podido": i. Private to "poseído": esí.

"podido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "poseído" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • podido ← opdido · pdoido · poddido · poddio · podiddo · podiod · poiddo · ppodido

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "podido" for "poseído" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "podido" is a verb and "poseído" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "podido" or "poseído"?
"podido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,525 in our Spanish list, against #22,819 for "poseído". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "podido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poseído" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #241,580 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "podido" and "poseído" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "posado vs poseído". 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 #241,580 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