capturavscapturarWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: captura is a noun, capturar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“captura” is a noun and “capturar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,400
“captura” frequency rank
#8,351
“capturar” frequency rank
12751
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature captura capturar
Definition Acción y efecto de capturar. Atrapar, coger, enganchar.

Where the eye mixes captura and capturar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. captura runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against capturar's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
captura
8 ch
capturar

Why the eye confuses captura with capturar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: captura is [kapˈt̪uɾa] while capturar is [kapt̪uˈɾaɾ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “captura” sits inside “capturar”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12751, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

captura is recorded at frequency rank #4,400, classified as anoun, pronounced [kapˈt̪uɾa]. capturar is at rank #8,351, tagged as averb, pronounced [kapt̪uˈɾaɾ].

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 12751, this pair ranks #290,418 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of captura vs capturar

Shared letters: acprtu. Private to "captura": -. Private to "capturar": -.

"captura" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "capturar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • captura ← acptura · capptura · captrua · capttura · captuar · capturra · caputra · catpura
  • capturar ← acpturar · cappturar · captruar · captturar · captuarr · capturarr · capturrar · caputrar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "captura" and "capturar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "captura" is a noun and "capturar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "captura" or "capturar" show up more?
"captura" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,400 in our Spanish list, against #8,351 for "capturar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "captura" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capturar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,418 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "captura" and "capturar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capturar vs capture". 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 #290,418 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