Which to use
“tardío” is an adjective and “tendió” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,700
- “tardío” frequency rank
- #31,137
- “tendió” frequency rank
- 49837
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tardío | tendió |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Que se ejecuta o sucede con posterioridad a lo esperado. | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de tender o de tenderse. |
Where the eye mixes tardío and tendió
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses tardío with tendió
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tardío is [t̪aɾˈð̞io] while tendió is [t̪ẽn̪ˈd̪jo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 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 49837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tardío is recorded at frequency rank #18,700, classified as anadj, pronounced [t̪aɾˈð̞io]. tendió is at rank #31,137, tagged as averb, pronounced [t̪ẽn̪ˈd̪jo].
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 49837, this pair ranks #106,576 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tardío vs tendió
Shared letters: dt. Private to "tardío": aorí. Private to "tendió": einó.
"tardío" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "tendió" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tardío" and "tendió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "tardío" or "tendió"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tardío" and "tendió" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tardío" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tendió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #106,576 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tardío" and "tendió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tendían vs tendió". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #106,576 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.