hablavshabléWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#486
“habla” frequency rank
#7,568
“hablé” frequency rank
8054
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habla hablé
Definition Capacidad de comunicarse mediante el lenguaje oral. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de hablar o de hablarse.

Where the eye mixes habla and hablé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
habla
5 ch
hablé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: habla is [ˈaβ̞la] while hablé is [aˈβ̞le]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “habla” becomes é in “hablé”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8054, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habla is recorded at frequency rank #486, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaβ̞la]. hablé is at rank #7,568, tagged as averb, pronounced [aˈβ̞le].

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 8054, this pair ranks #306,148 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of habla vs hablé

Shared letters: abhl. Private to "habla": -. Private to "hablé": é.

"habla" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "hablé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hablaahbla · habal · habbla · hablla · halba · havla · hbala · hhabla

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "habla" and "hablé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habla" is a noun and "hablé" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "habla" or "hablé"?
"habla" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #486 in our Spanish list, against #7,568 for "hablé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list