contactvscontadoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: contact is a noun, contado is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“contact” is a noun and “contado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,993
“contact” frequency rank
#4,873
“contado” frequency rank
34866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contact contado
Definition Contacto. Raro, escaso.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set contact and contado apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
contact
7 ch
contado

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contact is /kɔ̃.takt/ while contado is [kõn̪ˈt̪að̞o]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contact is recorded at frequency rank #29,993, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔ̃.takt/. contado is at rank #4,873, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kõn̪ˈt̪að̞o].

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 34866, this pair ranks #189,118 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contact vs contado

Shared letters: acnot. Private to "contact": -. Private to "contado": d.

"contact" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "contado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contactccontact · cnotact · conatct · conntact · contacct · contactt · contatc · contcat
  • contadoccontado · cnotado · conatdo · conntado · contaddo · contaod · contdao · conttado

Frequency comparison

contact#29,993
contado#4,873

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contact" and "contado" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contact" is a noun and "contado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "contact" or "contado"?
"contado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,873 in our Spanish list, against #29,993 for "contact". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering contact vs contado

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “contact”; for an adjective, it's “contado”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “contact” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list