banevsbatoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bane is a verb, bato is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bane” is a verb and “bato” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,461
“bane” frequency rank
#38,525
“bato” frequency rank
87986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bane bato
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de banir. Tonto.

Where the eye mixes bane and bato

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. bane and bato follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
bane
4 ch
bato

Why the eye confuses bane with bato

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bane is [ˈbane] while bato is [ˈbat̪o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bane is recorded at frequency rank #49,461, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbane]. bato is at rank #38,525, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbat̪o].

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 87986, this pair ranks #4,097 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bane vs bato

Shared letters: ab. Private to "bane": en. Private to "bato": ot.

"bane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "bato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bane ← abne · banne · bbane · bnae · vane
  • bato ← abto · baot · batto · bbato · btao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bane" for "bato" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bane" is a verb and "bato" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "bane" or "bato" show up more?
"bato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,525 in our Spanish list, against #49,461 for "bane". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "bane" and "bato" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,097 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bane" and "bato" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bane vs brie". 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 #4,097 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