ContestavscortesíaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Contesta is a name, cortesía is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Contesta” is a name and “cortesía” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,937
“Contesta” frequency rank
#7,838
“cortesía” frequency rank
13775
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Contesta cortesía
Definition Ciudad de Italia, provincia de Palermo, cerca de Corleone. Era una antigua colonia albanesa de los montes de Corleone. Calidad o cualidad de cortés.

Where the eye mixes Contesta and cortesía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Contesta (CVCCVCCV) and cortesía (CVCCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
Contesta
8 ch
cortesía

Look-alike desk: Contesta vs cortesía

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Contesta is [kõn̪ˈt̪est̪a] 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Contesta is recorded at frequency rank #5,937, classified as aname, pronounced [kõn̪ˈt̪est̪a]. 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 13775, this pair ranks #286,598 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Contesta vs cortesía

Shared letters: aceost. Private to "Contesta": n. Private to "cortesía": .

"Contesta" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "cortesía" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Contestaccontesta · cnotesta · conetsta · conntesta · contesat · contessta · contestta · contetsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Contesta" and "cortesía" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Contesta" is a name and "cortesía" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Contesta" or "cortesía"?
"Contesta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,937 in our Spanish list, against #7,838 for "cortesía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Contesta" and "cortesía" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Contesta" 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 #286,598 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Contesta" and "cortesía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cornelia vs cortesía". 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 #286,598 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