contadovscortadoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,873
“contado” frequency rank
#8,360
“cortado” frequency rank
13233
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contado cortado
Definition Raro, escaso. Se dice de la persona de carácter tímido y retraído.

Where the eye mixes contado and cortado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
contado
7 ch
cortado

Why the eye confuses contado with cortado

A purely visual mix-up. contado ([kõn̪ˈt̪að̞o]) and cortado ([koɾˈt̪að̞o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - n in “contado” becomes r in “cortado”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contado is recorded at frequency rank #4,873, classified as anadj, pronounced [kõn̪ˈt̪að̞o]. cortado is at rank #8,360, tagged as anadj, pronounced [koɾˈt̪að̞o].

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 13233, this pair ranks #288,602 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of contado vs cortado

Shared letters: acdot. Private to "contado": n. Private to "cortado": r.

"contado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "cortado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contadoccontado · cnotado · conatdo · conntado · contaddo · contaod · contdao · conttado
  • cortadoccortado · coratdo · corrtado · cortaddo · cortaod · cortdao · corttado · cotrado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contado" and "cortado" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([kõn̪ˈt̪að̞o] versus [koɾˈt̪að̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "contado" or "cortado"?
"contado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,873 in our Spanish list, against #8,360 for "cortado". 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 "contado" and "cortado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cortado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,602 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contado" and "cortado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cortado vs cortador". 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 #288,602 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