contarávscortabaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,648
“contará” frequency rank
#29,567
“cortaba” frequency rank
43215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contará cortaba
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de contar. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de cortar o de cortarse.

Where the eye mixes contará and cortaba

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
contará
7 ch
cortaba

Visual trap between contará and cortaba

A purely visual mix-up. contará ([kõn̪t̪aˈɾa]) and cortaba ([koɾˈt̪aβ̞a]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contará is recorded at frequency rank #13,648, classified as averb, pronounced [kõn̪t̪aˈɾa]. cortaba is at rank #29,567, tagged as averb, pronounced [koɾˈt̪aβ̞a].

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 43215, this pair ranks #143,912 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contará vs cortaba

Shared letters: acort. Private to "contará": . Private to "cortaba": b.

"contará" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "cortaba" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cortabaccortaba · coratba · corrtaba · cortaab · cortabba · cortava · cortbaa · corttaba

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contará" and "cortaba" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([kõn̪t̪aˈɾa] versus [koɾˈt̪aβ̞a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "contará" vs "cortaba" - which ranks higher?
"contará" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,648 in our Spanish list, against #29,567 for "cortaba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "contará" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cortaba" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,912 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contará" and "cortaba" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cortaba vs cortarla". 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 #143,912 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