contadasvscontaránWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: contadas is a participle, contarán is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“contadas” is a participle and “contarán” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,197
“contadas” frequency rank
#29,126
“contarán” frequency rank
47323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contadas contarán
Definition Forma del femenino plural de contado, participio de contar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de contar.

Where the eye mixes contadas and contarán

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

8 ch
contadas
8 ch
contarán

Why the eye confuses contadas with contarán

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contadas is [kõn̪ˈt̪að̞as] while contarán is [kõn̪t̪aˈɾãn]. 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 (participle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contadas is recorded at frequency rank #18,197, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [kõn̪ˈt̪að̞as]. contarán is at rank #29,126, tagged as averb, pronounced [kõn̪t̪aˈɾãn].

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 47323, this pair ranks #120,704 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contadas vs contarán

Shared letters: acnot. Private to "contadas": ds. Private to "contarán": .

"contadas" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "contarán" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contadasccontadas · cnotadas · conatdas · conntadas · contaads · contadass · contaddas · contadsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "contadas" and "contarán" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contadas" is a participle and "contarán" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "contadas" or "contarán" show up more?
"contadas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,197 in our Spanish list, against #29,126 for "contarán". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contadas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contarán" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #120,704 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contadas" and "contarán" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "constará vs contarán". 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 #120,704 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