pararávspatataWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#36,729
“parará” frequency rank
#16,664
“patata” frequency rank
53393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parará patata
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de parar o de pararse. (Solanum tuberosum) Planta herbácea, caducifolia, de la familia de las solanáceas, de tallo erecto o decumbente de hasta 1 m de largo, hojas imparipinnadas, de foliolos lanceolados, pilosas, y flores en inflorescencias terminales racemosas, de pétalos fusionados de color blanco a púrpura, que fructifican en pequeñas bayas. Se la aprecia por los tubérculos que produce su sistema radical, muy usados en gastronomía.

Where the eye mixes parará and patata

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. parará and patata follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
parará
6 ch
patata

Why the eye confuses parará with patata

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parará is [paɾaˈɾa] while patata is [paˈt̪at̪a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parará is recorded at frequency rank #36,729, classified as averb, pronounced [paɾaˈɾa]. patata is at rank #16,664, tagged as anoun, pronounced [paˈt̪at̪a].

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 53393, this pair ranks #88,092 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parará vs patata

Shared letters: ap. Private to "parará": rá. Private to "patata": t.

"parará" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "patata" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patata ← aptata · paatta · pataat · patatta · pattaa · pattata · ppatata · ptaata

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "parará" and "patata" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parará" is a verb and "patata" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "parará" vs "patata" - which ranks higher?
"patata" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,664 in our Spanish list, against #36,729 for "parará". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "parará" and "patata" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parará" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "patata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #88,092 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parará" and "patata" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parará vs parca". 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 #88,092 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