tanovstejoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tano is a adjective, tejo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tano” is an adjective and “tejo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,989
“tano” frequency rank
#46,836
“tejo” frequency rank
85825
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tano tejo
Definition Dicho de un persona, de origen italiano. Pedazo de piedra plana y redondeada, o trozo de teja que se usa en diversos juegos.

Where the eye mixes tano and tejo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tano and tejo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
tano
4 ch
tejo

Look-alike desk: tano vs tejo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tano is [ˈt̪ano] while tejo is [ˈt̪exo]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85825, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tano is recorded at frequency rank #38,989, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈt̪ano]. tejo is at rank #46,836, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪exo].

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 85825, this pair ranks #5,799 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tano vs tejo

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tano": an. Private to "tejo": ej.

"tano" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tejo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tano ← atno · tanno · taon · tnao · ttano
  • tejo ← etjo · tejjo · teoj · tjeo · ttejo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tano" for "tejo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tano" is an adjective and "tejo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tano" or "tejo"?
"tano" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,989 in our Spanish list, against #46,836 for "tejo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tano" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tejo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,799 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tano" and "tejo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tapo vs tejo". 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 #5,799 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