tardevstareaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tarde is a adverb, tarea is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tarde” is an adverb and “tarea” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#307
“tarde” frequency rank
#1,620
“tarea” frequency rank
1927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tarde tarea
Definition A última hora, cuando el tiempo propicio ya ha pasado o cuando ya se cumplió un plazo acordado. Acción o efecto de trabajar.

Where the eye mixes tarde and tarea

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

5 ch
tarde
5 ch
tarea

Look-alike desk: tarde vs tarea

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tarde is [ˈt̪aɾð̞e] while tarea is [t̪aˈɾea]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tarde is recorded at frequency rank #307, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈt̪aɾð̞e]. tarea is at rank #1,620, tagged as anoun, pronounced [t̪aˈɾea].

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 1927, this pair ranks #321,259 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tarde vs tarea

Shared letters: aert. Private to "tarde": d. Private to "tarea": -.

"tarde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tarea" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tardeatrde · tadre · tardde · tared · tarrde · ttarde
  • tareaatrea · taera · tarae · tarrea · traea · ttarea

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tarde" for "tarea" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tarde" is an adverb and "tarea" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tarde" or "tarea" show up more?
"tarde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #307 in our Spanish list, against #1,620 for "tarea". 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 "tarde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tarea" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,259 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tarde" and "tarea" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tale vs tarea". 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 #321,259 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