cortevscurseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: corte is a noun, curse is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“corte” is a noun and “curse” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#803
“corte” frequency rank
#44,090
“curse” frequency rank
44893
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature corte curse
Definition Acción de cortar o de cortarse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de cursar.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set corte and curse apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
corte
5 ch
curse

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: corte is [ˈkoɾt̪e] while curse is [ˈkuɾse]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

corte is recorded at frequency rank #803, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkoɾt̪e]. curse is at rank #44,090, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkuɾse].

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 44893, this pair ranks #134,520 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of corte vs curse

Shared letters: cer. Private to "corte": ot. Private to "curse": su.

"corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "curse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corteccorte · coret · corrte · cortte · cotre · crote · ocrte
  • curseccurse · cruse · curce · cures · currse · cursse · cusre · ucrse

Frequency comparison

corte#803
curse#44,090

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "corte" and "curse" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "corte" is a noun and "curse" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "corte" or "curse"?
"corte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #803 in our Spanish list, against #44,090 for "curse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering corte vs curse

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “corte”; for a verb, it's “curse”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “corte” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list