Which to use
“borrar” is a verb and “borrón” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,586
- “borrar” frequency rank
- #31,238
- “borrón” frequency rank
- 36824
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | borrar | borrón |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Hacer que desaparezca lo escrito, trazado o pintado con una goma, borrador u otro material. | Efecto de borrar o tachar sobre un papel quedando restos de dicha acción. |
Where the eye mixes borrar and borrón
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. borrar and borrón follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between borrar and borrón
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: borrar is [boˈraɾ] while borrón is [boˈrõn]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
borrar is recorded at frequency rank #5,586, classified as averb, pronounced [boˈraɾ]. borrón is at rank #31,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced [boˈrõn].
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 36824, this pair ranks #178,587 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of borrar vs borrón
Shared letters: bor. Private to "borrar": a. Private to "borrón": nó.
"borrar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "borrón" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- borrar ← bborrar · borar · borarr · borrarr · borrra · brorar · obrrar · vorrar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "borrar" for "borrón" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "borrar" or "borrón" show up more?
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 "borrar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "borrón" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,587 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "borrar" and "borrón" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "borrón vs burlón". 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 #178,587 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.