controlabanvscontroladasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: controlaban is a verb, controladas is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“controlaban” is a verb and “controladas” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,602
“controlaban” frequency rank
#16,544
“controladas” frequency rank
55146
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature controlaban controladas
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de controlar. Forma del femenino plural de controlado, participio de controlar o de controlarse.

Where the eye mixes controlaban and controladas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

11 ch
controlaban
11 ch
controladas

Visual trap between controlaban and controladas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: controlaban is [kõn̪t̪ɾoˈlaβ̞ãn] while controladas is [kõn̪t̪ɾoˈlað̞as]. 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 participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

controlaban is recorded at frequency rank #38,602, classified as averb, pronounced [kõn̪t̪ɾoˈlaβ̞ãn]. controladas is at rank #16,544, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [kõn̪t̪ɾoˈlað̞as].

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 55146, this pair ranks #80,202 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of controlaban vs controladas

Shared letters: aclnort. Private to "controlaban": b. Private to "controladas": ds.

"controlaban" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCVCVC  ·  "controladas" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • controlabanccontrolaban · cnotrolaban · conntrolaban · conrtolaban · contorlaban · contrloaban · controalban · controlaabn
  • controladasccontroladas · cnotroladas · conntroladas · conrtoladas · contorladas · contrloadas · controaldas · controlaads

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "controlaban" and "controladas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "controlaban" is a verb and "controladas" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "controlaban" or "controladas" show up more?
"controladas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,544 in our Spanish list, against #38,602 for "controlaban". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "controlaban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "controladas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #80,202 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "controlaban" and "controladas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "controlaba vs controlaban". 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 #80,202 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