what
/ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–)
The verdict
“what” is a regularly-used Spanish word, ranked #7,377 in Spanish word frequency and used as a pronoun.
- #7,377
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qué.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | what |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | /ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–) |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #7,377 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “what” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for what is 4 letters long, classified as a pronoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–). Corpus data places it at rank #7,377 in overall Spanish word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for what, with forms such as "hwat", "waht", and "whatt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "who", "why", "when", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct Spanish form is what, spelled W-H-A-T.
Definition
- 1Qué.
- 2Cuál.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hwat,waht,whatt,whhat,whta,wwhat
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of what - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “what”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is W-H-A-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–) (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “who” - see the side-by-side comparison. what vs who
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.