tardasvstardíoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“tardas” and “tardío” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,134
“tardas” frequency rank
#18,700
“tardío” frequency rank
49834
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tardas tardío
Definition Forma del femenino plural de tardo. Que se ejecuta o sucede con posterioridad a lo esperado.

Where the eye mixes tardas and tardío

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
tardas
6 ch
tardío

Visual trap between tardas and tardío

A purely visual mix-up. tardas ([ˈt̪aɾð̞as]) and tardío ([t̪aɾˈð̞io]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49834, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tardas is recorded at frequency rank #31,134, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈt̪aɾð̞as]. tardío is at rank #18,700, tagged as anadj, pronounced [t̪aɾˈð̞io].

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 49834, this pair ranks #106,597 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tardas vs tardío

Shared letters: adrt. Private to "tardas": s. Private to "tardío": .

"tardas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "tardío" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tardasatrdas · tadras · tarads · tardass · tarddas · tardsa · tarrdas · tradas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tardas" and "tardío" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈt̪aɾð̞as] versus [t̪aɾˈð̞io]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tardas" vs "tardío" - which ranks higher?
"tardío" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,700 in our Spanish list, against #31,134 for "tardas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tardas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tardío" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #106,597 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tardas" and "tardío" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tardas vs turbas". 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 #106,597 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