tardíasvstardíosConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,038
“tardías” frequency rank
#46,243
“tardíos” frequency rank
91281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tardías tardíos
Definition Forma del femenino plural de tardío. Forma del masculino plural de tardío.

Where the eye mixes tardías and tardíos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tardías and tardíos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
tardías
7 ch
tardíos

Visual trap between tardías and tardíos

A purely visual mix-up. tardías ([t̪aɾˈð̞ias]) and tardíos ([t̪aɾˈð̞ios]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “tardías” becomes o in “tardíos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tardías is recorded at frequency rank #45,038, classified as anadj, pronounced [t̪aɾˈð̞ias]. tardíos is at rank #46,243, tagged as anadj, pronounced [t̪aɾˈð̞ios].

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 91281, this pair ranks #2,075 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tardías vs tardíos

Shared letters: adrstí. Private to "tardías": -. Private to "tardíos": o.

"tardías" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "tardíos" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tardías" for "tardíos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([t̪aɾˈð̞ias] versus [t̪aɾˈð̞ios]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tardías" vs "tardíos" - which ranks higher?
"tardías" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,038 in our Spanish list, against #46,243 for "tardíos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tardías" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tardíos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,075 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tardías" and "tardíos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tardíos vs tarros". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,075 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