antevsatTell them apart

Quick tell: ante is a preposition, at is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ante” is a preposition and “at” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#261
“ante” frequency rank
#4,857
“at” frequency rank
5118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ante at
Definition Delante de algo o alguien. Símbolo tipográfico (@) muy utilizado en informática e internet, en particular como parte de las direcciones de correo electrónico.

Where the eye mixes ante and at

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ante
2 ch
at

Look-alike desk: ante vs at

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ante is [ˈãn̪t̪e] while at is [ˈat̪]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ante is recorded at frequency rank #261, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈãn̪t̪e]. at is at rank #4,857, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈat̪].

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 5118, this pair ranks #314,451 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ante vs at

Shared letters: at. Private to "ante": en. Private to "at": -.

"ante" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anteanet · annte · antte · atne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ante" and "at" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ante" is a preposition and "at" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ante" or "at" show up more?
"ante" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #261 in our Spanish list, against #4,857 for "at". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ante" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "at" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #314,451 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ante" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "anta vs at". 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 #314,451 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