comióvscontóConfusable pair

Which to use

“comió” and “contó” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,810
“comió” frequency rank
#2,598
“contó” frequency rank
13408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comió contó
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de comer o de comerse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de contar.

Where the eye mixes comió and contó

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
comió
5 ch
contó

Why the eye confuses comió with contó

A purely visual mix-up. comió ([koˈmjo]) and contó ([kõn̪ˈt̪o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comió is recorded at frequency rank #10,810, classified as averb, pronounced [koˈmjo]. contó is at rank #2,598, tagged as averb, pronounced [kõn̪ˈt̪o].

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 13408, this pair ranks #287,977 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of comió vs contó

Shared letters: coó. Private to "comió": im. Private to "contó": nt.

"comió" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "contó" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "comió" for "contó" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([koˈmjo] versus [kõn̪ˈt̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "comió" or "contó" show up more?
"contó" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,598 in our Spanish list, against #10,810 for "comió". 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 "comió" and "contó" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contó" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,977 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comió" and "contó" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs comió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #287,977 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