obténvsOTANWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: obtén is a verb, OTAN is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“obtén” is a verb and “OTAN” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,319
“obtén” frequency rank
#9,167
“OTAN” frequency rank
38486
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature obtén OTAN
Definition Segunda persona del singular (tú) del imperativo afirmativo de obtener. Organización internacional política y militar creada como resultado de las negociaciones entre los signatarios del Tratado de Bruselas (Bélgica, Francia, Luxemburgo, Holanda y el Reino Unido), Estados Unidos y Canadá, así como otros cinco países de Europa Occidental invitados a participar (Dinamarca, Italia, Islandia, Noruega y Portugal), con el objetivo de organizar Europa ante la amenaza de la Unión Soviética después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Where the eye mixes obtén and OTAN

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. obtén runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against OTAN's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
obtén
4 ch
OTAN

Why the eye confuses obtén with OTAN

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: obtén is [oβ̞ˈt̪ẽn] while OTAN is [ˈot̪ãn]. 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 (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38486, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

obtén is recorded at frequency rank #29,319, classified as averb, pronounced [oβ̞ˈt̪ẽn]. OTAN is at rank #9,167, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈot̪ãn].

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 38486, this pair ranks #169,765 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of obtén vs OTAN

Shared letters: not. Private to "obtén": bé. Private to "OTAN": a.

"obtén" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "OTAN" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • OTAN ← oatn · otann · otna · ottan · toan

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "obtén" and "OTAN" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "obtén" is a verb and "OTAN" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "obtén" or "OTAN"?
"OTAN" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,167 in our Spanish list, against #29,319 for "obtén". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "obtén" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "OTAN" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,765 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "obtén" and "OTAN" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obtén vs omiten". 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 #169,765 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