Which to use
“tarde” is an adverb and “tardio” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #279
- “tarde” frequency rank
- #25,837
- “tardio” frequency rank
- 26116
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tarde | tardio |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | tardiamente, atrasado | que chega tarde ou que vem fora do tempo próprio |
Letter map: tarde vs tardio
Shared letters muted; letters that set tarde and tardio apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. tarde runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tardio's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - tarde and tardio
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tarde is anadverb and tardioanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tarde is recorded at frequency rank #279, classified as anadv, pronounced /'tax.dʒɪ/. tardio is at rank #25,837, tagged as anadj.
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 26116, this pair ranks #43,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tarde vs tardio
Shared letters: adrt. Private to "tarde": e. Private to "tardio": io.
"tarde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tardio" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tarde" for "tardio" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tarde" or "tardio" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "tarde" and "tardio". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "tarde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tardio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tarde" and "tardio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tardio vs tordo". 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 #43,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.