Which to use
“control” and “controles” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #509
- “control” frequency rank
- #5,388
- “controles” frequency rank
- 5897
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | control | controles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | El acto o el poder de dominar, dirigir, regular, comandar, controlar. | Forma del plural de control. |
Where the eye mixes control and controles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses control with controles
A purely visual mix-up. control ([kõn̪ˈt̪ɾol]) and controles ([kõn̪ˈt̪ɾoles]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “control” sits inside “controles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
control is recorded at frequency rank #509, classified as anoun, pronounced [kõn̪ˈt̪ɾol]. controles is at rank #5,388, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kõn̪ˈt̪ɾoles].
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 5897, this pair ranks #312,361 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of control vs controles
Shared letters: clnort. Private to "control": -. Private to "controles": es.
"control" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "controles" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "control" and "controles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "control" or "controles" show up more?
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 "control" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "controles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #312,361 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "control" and "controles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "controles vs controlo". 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 #312,361 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.