what

//ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–)/ pron

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#7,377

in Spanish word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

17

similar word pairs

what is aSpanishpron. It means: Qué. Pronounced /ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–). It ranks #7,377 in Spanish word frequency. Often confused with who and why.

Key facts for what
PropertyValue
Headwordwhat
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechPron
IPA/ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–)
Letters4
Frequency rank#7,377
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs17
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of what in Spanish word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Spanish entry for what is 4 letters long, classified as apron, 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for what, with forms such as "hwat", "waht", and "whatt". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "who", "why", "when", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct Spanish form is what, spelled W-H-A-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qué.
  2. 2
    Cuál.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hwat,waht,whatt,whhat,whta,wwhat

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for what

Misspelling Variants of "what"

hwat4waht4whatt5whhat5whta4wwhat5
Misspelling Variants of "what"

Frequency rank: #7,377 in Spanish

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "what"?
"what" is spelled W-H-A-T. The IPA pronunciation is /ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–).
What does "what" mean?
As a pron, "what" means: Qué.
What words are commonly confused with "what"?
"what" is commonly confused with "who", "why", "when". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "what"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "what" is /ʍɒt/ (sin la fusión–). Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "what" come from?
"what" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby Spanish words

Other entries that begin with the letter W in our Spanish index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.