podridavspodridoConfusable pair

Quick tell: podrida is a participle, podrido is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#16,943
“podrida” frequency rank
#13,982
“podrido” frequency rank
30925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature podrida podrido
Definition Forma del femenino de podrido. Echado a perder.

Where the eye mixes podrida and podrido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. podrida and podrido follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
podrida
7 ch
podrido

Why the eye confuses podrida with podrido

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: podrida is [poˈð̞ɾið̞a] while podrido is [poˈð̞ɾið̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “podrida” becomes o in “podrido”, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

podrida is recorded at frequency rank #16,943, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [poˈð̞ɾið̞a]. podrido is at rank #13,982, tagged as anadj, pronounced [poˈð̞ɾið̞o].

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 30925, this pair ranks #209,648 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of podrida vs podrido

Shared letters: diopr. Private to "podrida": a. Private to "podrido": -.

"podrida" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "podrido" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • podrida ← opdrida · pdorida · poddrida · podirda · podrdia · podriad · podridda · podrrida
  • podrido ← opdrido · pdorido · poddrido · podirdo · podrdio · podriddo · podriod · podrrido

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "podrida" and "podrido" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "podrida" is a participle and "podrido" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "podrida" vs "podrido" - which ranks higher?
"podrido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,982 in our Spanish list, against #16,943 for "podrida". 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 "podrida" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "podrido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #209,648 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "podrida" and "podrido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedida vs podrida". 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 #209,648 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