recomendabavsrecomendadasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: recomendaba is a verb, recomendadas is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“recomendaba” is a verb and “recomendadas” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,786
“recomendaba” frequency rank
#29,364
“recomendadas” frequency rank
66150
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recomendaba recomendadas
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de recomendar. Forma del femenino plural de recomendado, participio de recomendar.

Where the eye mixes recomendaba and recomendadas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. recomendaba runs 11 letters (CVCVCVCCVCV) against recomendadas's 12 (CVCVCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
recomendaba
12 ch
recomendadas

Visual trap between recomendaba and recomendadas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: recomendaba is [rekomẽn̪ˈd̪aβ̞a] while recomendadas is [rekomẽn̪ˈd̪að̞as]. 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 participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recomendaba is recorded at frequency rank #36,786, classified as averb, pronounced [rekomẽn̪ˈd̪aβ̞a]. recomendadas is at rank #29,364, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [rekomẽn̪ˈd̪að̞as].

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 66150, this pair ranks #40,626 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of recomendaba vs recomendadas

Shared letters: acdemnor. Private to "recomendaba": b. Private to "recomendadas": s.

"recomendaba" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCV  ·  "recomendadas" · 12 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recomendabaercomendaba · rceomendaba · reccomendaba · recmoendaba · recoemndaba · recomednaba · recomenadba · recomendaab
  • recomendadasercomendadas · rceomendadas · reccomendadas · recmoendadas · recoemndadas · recomednadas · recomenaddas · recomendaads

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recomendaba" for "recomendadas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "recomendaba" is a verb and "recomendadas" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "recomendaba" or "recomendadas" show up more?
"recomendadas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,364 in our Spanish list, against #36,786 for "recomendaba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "recomendaba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recomendadas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,626 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recomendaba" and "recomendadas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recomendaba vs recomendaría". 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 #40,626 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