aterravsaterradaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: aterra is a verb, aterrada is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aterra” is a verb and “aterrada” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,975
“aterra” frequency rank
#44,565
“aterrada” frequency rank
77540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aterra aterrada
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de aterrar. Forma del femenino de aterrado, participio de aterrar.

Where the eye mixes aterra and aterrada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. aterra runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against aterrada's 8 (VCVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
aterra
8 ch
aterrada

Visual trap between aterra and aterrada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aterra is [aˈt̪era] while aterrada is [at̪eˈrað̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “aterra” sits inside “aterrada”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aterra is recorded at frequency rank #32,975, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈt̪era]. aterrada is at rank #44,565, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [at̪eˈrað̞a].

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 77540, this pair ranks #15,846 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aterra vs aterrada

Shared letters: aert. Private to "aterra": -. Private to "aterrada": d.

"aterra" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "aterrada" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aterraaetrra · atera · aterar · atrera · atterra · taerra
  • aterradaaetrrada · aterada · aterarda · aterraad · aterradda · aterrdaa · atrerada · atterrada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aterra" for "aterrada" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aterra" is a verb and "aterrada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "aterra" or "aterrada" show up more?
"aterra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,975 in our Spanish list, against #44,565 for "aterrada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aterra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aterrada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,846 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aterra" and "aterrada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aterrada vs aterrados". 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 #15,846 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