talladovstardadoConfusable pair

Quick tell: tallado is a adjective, tardado is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#27,794
“tallado” frequency rank
#16,464
“tardado” frequency rank
44258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tallado tardado
Definition Con los adverbios "bien" o "mal", de buen, o mal, talle. Participio de tardar.

Where the eye mixes tallado and tardado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. tallado and tardado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
tallado
7 ch
tardado

Why the eye confuses tallado with tardado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tallado is [t̪aˈʝað̞o] while tardado is [t̪aɾˈð̞að̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tallado is recorded at frequency rank #27,794, classified as anadj, pronounced [t̪aˈʝað̞o]. tardado is at rank #16,464, tagged as averb, pronounced [t̪aɾˈð̞að̞o].

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 44258, this pair ranks #138,066 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tallado vs tardado

Shared letters: adot. Private to "tallado": l. Private to "tardado": r.

"tallado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "tardado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tallado ← atllado · talado · talaldo · talladdo · tallaod · talldao · tlalado · ttallado
  • tardado ← atrdado · tadrado · taraddo · tardaddo · tardaod · tarddado · tarddao · tarrdado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tallado" and "tardado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tallado" is an adjective and "tardado" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tallado" or "tardado" show up more?
"tardado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,464 in our Spanish list, against #27,794 for "tallado". 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 "tallado" and "tardado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tallado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tardado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,066 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tallado" and "tardado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "talladas vs tallado". 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 #138,066 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