Which to use
“contenía” is a verb and “cortesía” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,471
- “contenía” frequency rank
- #7,838
- “cortesía” frequency rank
- 18309
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contenía | cortesía |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de contener o de contenerse. | Calidad o cualidad de cortés. |
Where the eye mixes contenía and cortesía
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. contenía and cortesía follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses contenía with cortesía
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contenía is [kõn̪t̪eˈnia] while cortesía is [koɾt̪eˈsia]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contenía is recorded at frequency rank #10,471, classified as averb, pronounced [kõn̪t̪eˈnia]. cortesía is at rank #7,838, tagged as anoun, pronounced [koɾt̪eˈsia].
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 18309, this pair ranks #268,445 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of contenía vs cortesía
Shared letters: aceotí. Private to "contenía": n. Private to "cortesía": rs.
"contenía" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV · "cortesía" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "contenía" and "cortesía" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "contenía" or "cortesía" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "contenía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cortesía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #268,445 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contenía" and "cortesía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cornelia vs cortesía". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #268,445 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.