cojavscómoConfusable pair

Quick tell: coja is a adjective, cómo is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“coja” is an adjective and “cómo” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,075
“coja” frequency rank
#124
“cómo” frequency rank
17199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coja cómo
Definition Forma del singular femenino de cojo. De qué manera.

Where the eye mixes coja and cómo

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

4 ch
coja
4 ch
cómo

Visual trap between coja and cómo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coja is [ˈkoxa] while cómo is [ˈkomo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coja is recorded at frequency rank #17,075, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈkoxa]. cómo is at rank #124, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈkomo].

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 17199, this pair ranks #273,142 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coja vs cómo

Shared letters: co. Private to "coja": aj. Private to "cómo": .

"coja" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cómo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cojaccoja · cjoa · coaj · cojja · ocja

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coja" for "cómo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coja" is an adjective and "cómo" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "coja" or "cómo" show up more?
"cómo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #124 in our Spanish list, against #17,075 for "coja". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "coja" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cómo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,142 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coja" and "cómo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs coja". 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 #273,142 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