contadoravscontadosConfusable pair

Quick tell: contadora is a adjective, contados is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“contadora” is an adjective and “contados” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,132
“contadora” frequency rank
#13,419
“contados” frequency rank
52551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contadora contados
Definition Forma del femenino de contador. Forma del plural de contado, participio de contar.

Where the eye mixes contadora and contados

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. contadora runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCV) against contados's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
contadora
8 ch
contados

Visual trap between contadora and contados

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contadora is [kõn̪t̪aˈð̞oɾa] while contados is [kõn̪ˈt̪að̞os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contadora is recorded at frequency rank #39,132, classified as anadj, pronounced [kõn̪t̪aˈð̞oɾa]. contados is at rank #13,419, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [kõn̪ˈt̪að̞os].

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 52551, this pair ranks #92,145 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contadora vs contados

Shared letters: acdnot. Private to "contadora": r. Private to "contados": s.

"contadora" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "contados" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contadora ← ccontadora · cnotadora · conatdora · conntadora · contaddora · contadoar · contadorra · contadroa
  • contados ← ccontados · cnotados · conatdos · conntados · contaddos · contadoss · contadso · contaods

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "contadora" for "contados" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contadora" is an adjective and "contados" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "contadora" or "contados" show up more?
"contados" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,419 in our Spanish list, against #39,132 for "contadora". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contadora" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contados" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #92,145 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contadora" and "contados" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contadora 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 #92,145 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