Which to use
“dela” is a contraction and “delata” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,645
- “dela” frequency rank
- #30,855
- “delata” frequency rank
- 51500
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dela | delata |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contracción de la preposición de y el artículo la | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de delatar. |
Where the eye mixes dela and delata
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dela runs 4 letters (CVCV) against delata's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dela and delata
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dela is /ˈde.la/ while delata is [d̪eˈlat̪a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dela” sits inside “delata”, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dela is recorded at frequency rank #20,645, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.la/. delata is at rank #30,855, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈlat̪a].
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 51500, this pair ranks #97,570 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dela vs delata
Shared letters: adel. Private to "dela": -. Private to "delata": t.
"dela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "delata" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dela" for "delata" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "dela" or "delata" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dela" and "delata" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "delata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #97,570 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dela" and "delata" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delata vs delatan". 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 #97,570 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.