contaránvscostaráConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,126
“contarán” frequency rank
#15,332
“costará” frequency rank
44458
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contarán costará
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de contar. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de costar.

Where the eye mixes contarán and costará

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. contarán runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against costará's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
contarán
7 ch
costará

Why the eye confuses contarán with costará

A purely visual mix-up. contarán ([kõn̪t̪aˈɾãn]) and costará ([kost̪aˈɾa]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44458, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contarán is recorded at frequency rank #29,126, classified as averb, pronounced [kõn̪t̪aˈɾãn]. costará is at rank #15,332, tagged as averb, pronounced [kost̪aˈɾa].

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 44458, this pair ranks #136,953 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contarán vs costará

Shared letters: acortá. Private to "contarán": n. Private to "costará": s.

"contarán" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "costará" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "contarán" for "costará" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kõn̪t̪aˈɾãn] versus [kost̪aˈɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "contarán" or "costará"?
"costará" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,332 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "contarán" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "costará" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,953 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contarán" and "costará" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "constará vs contarán". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #136,953 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