cortadovscortijoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cortado is a adjective, cortijo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cortado” is an adjective and “cortijo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,360
“cortado” frequency rank
#23,007
“cortijo” frequency rank
31367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cortado cortijo
Definition Se dice de la persona de carácter tímido y retraído. Casa de labor, comunmente perteneciente a una gran finca, (latifundio), donde viven los trabajadores de ésta y se almacenas las cosechas. Suelen estar construidos alrededor de un gran patio central, estando diferenciadas la vivienda de los dueños o encargados, las de los trabajadores y los almacenes.

Where the eye mixes cortado and cortijo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cortado and cortijo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
cortado
7 ch
cortijo

Look-alike desk: cortado vs cortijo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cortado is [koɾˈt̪að̞o] while cortijo is [koɾˈt̪ixo]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cortado is recorded at frequency rank #8,360, classified as anadj, pronounced [koɾˈt̪að̞o]. cortijo is at rank #23,007, tagged as anoun, pronounced [koɾˈt̪ixo].

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 31367, this pair ranks #207,404 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cortado vs cortijo

Shared letters: cort. Private to "cortado": ad. Private to "cortijo": ij.

"cortado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "cortijo" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cortado ← ccortado · coratdo · corrtado · cortaddo · cortaod · cortdao · corttado · cotrado
  • cortijo ← ccortijo · coritjo · corrtijo · cortijjo · cortioj · cortjio · corttijo · cotrijo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cortado" for "cortijo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cortado" is an adjective and "cortijo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cortado" vs "cortijo" - which ranks higher?
"cortado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,360 in our Spanish list, against #23,007 for "cortijo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cortado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cortijo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,404 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cortado" and "cortijo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cortijo vs curtido". 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 #207,404 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