Which to use
“España” is a name and “están” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #236
- “España” frequency rank
- #91
- “están” frequency rank
- 327
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | España | están |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | País ubicado en el suroeste de Europa, que ocupa la mayoría de la península ibérica. Limita al oeste con Portugal y el océano Atlántico, al norte con el mar Cantábrico, Francia y Andorra y al este y sur con el mar Mediterráneo. Lo integran también las Islas Baleares, las Islas Canarias y las ciudades de Ceuta y Melilla. | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de estar o de estarse. |
Where the eye mixes España and están
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: España is [esˈpaɲa] while están is [esˈt̪ãn]. 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 (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
España is recorded at frequency rank #236, classified as aname, pronounced [esˈpaɲa]. están is at rank #91, tagged as averb, pronounced [esˈt̪ãn].
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 327, this pair ranks #323,539 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of España vs están
Shared letters: es. Private to "España": apñ. Private to "están": ntá.
"España" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "están" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC