tarovstejoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#45,635
“taro” frequency rank
#46,836
“tejo” frequency rank
92471
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taro tejo
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de tarar. Pedazo de piedra plana y redondeada, o trozo de teja que se usa en diversos juegos.

Where the eye mixes taro and tejo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. taro 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
taro
4 ch
tejo

Why the eye confuses taro with tejo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: taro is [ˈt̪aɾo] 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taro is recorded at frequency rank #45,635, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈt̪aɾo]. 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 92471, this pair ranks #1,503 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of taro vs tejo

Shared letters: ot. Private to "taro": ar. Private to "tejo": ej.

"taro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tejo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • taro ← taor · trao · ttaro
  • tejo ← etjo · tejjo · teoj · tjeo · ttejo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "taro" for "tejo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taro" is a verb and "tejo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "taro" or "tejo" show up more?
"taro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,635 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "taro" 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 #1,503 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "taro" 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 #1,503 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