curadavscursabaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,974
“curada” frequency rank
#47,691
“cursaba” frequency rank
83665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature curada cursaba
Definition Forma del femenino de curado, participio de curar o de curarse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de cursar.

Where the eye mixes curada and cursaba

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. curada runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against cursaba's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
curada
7 ch
cursaba

Why the eye confuses curada with cursaba

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: curada is [kuˈɾað̞a] while cursaba is [kuɾˈsaβ̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

curada is recorded at frequency rank #35,974, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [kuˈɾað̞a]. cursaba is at rank #47,691, tagged as averb, pronounced [kuɾˈsaβ̞a].

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 83665, this pair ranks #7,888 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of curada vs cursaba

Shared letters: acru. Private to "curada": d. Private to "cursaba": bs.

"curada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cursaba" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • curada ← ccurada · cruada · curaad · curadda · curdaa · currada · ucrada
  • cursaba ← ccursaba · crusaba · curasba · currsaba · cursaab · cursabba · cursava · cursbaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "curada" for "cursaba" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "curada" is a participle and "cursaba" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "curada" or "cursaba"?
"curada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,974 in our Spanish list, against #47,691 for "cursaba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "curada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cursaba" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,888 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "curada" and "cursaba" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cursaba vs cursada". 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 #7,888 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