pateavsputaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#33,758
“patea” frequency rank
#794
“puta” frequency rank
34552
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature patea puta
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de patear. Mujer que presta servicios sexuales por dinero.

Where the eye mixes patea and puta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
patea
4 ch
puta

Look-alike desk: patea vs puta

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: patea is [paˈt̪ea] while puta is [ˈput̪a]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34552, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

patea is recorded at frequency rank #33,758, classified as averb, pronounced [paˈt̪ea]. puta is at rank #794, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈput̪a].

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 34552, this pair ranks #190,811 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of patea vs puta

Shared letters: apt. Private to "patea": e. Private to "puta": u.

"patea" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "puta" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pateaaptea · paeta · patae · pattea · ppatea · ptaea
  • putapputa · ptua · puat · putta · upta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "patea" for "puta" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "patea" is a verb and "puta" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "patea" or "puta" show up more?
"puta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #794 in our Spanish list, against #33,758 for "patea". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "patea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,811 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "patea" and "puta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parca vs patea". 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 #190,811 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