pestañavsprestadaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pestaña is a noun, prestada is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pestaña” is a noun and “prestada” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,600
“pestaña” frequency rank
#19,846
“prestada” frequency rank
44446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pestaña prestada
Definition Cada uno de los pelos que nacen del borde de los párpados. Forma del femenino de prestado, participio de prestar o de prestarse.

Where the eye mixes pestaña and prestada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. pestaña runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against prestada's 8 (CCVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
pestaña
8 ch
prestada

Why the eye confuses pestaña with prestada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pestaña is [pesˈt̪aɲa] while prestada is [pɾesˈt̪að̞a]. 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 (noun vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pestaña is recorded at frequency rank #24,600, classified as anoun, pronounced [pesˈt̪aɲa]. prestada is at rank #19,846, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [pɾesˈt̪að̞a].

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 44446, this pair ranks #137,018 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pestaña vs prestada

Shared letters: aepst. Private to "pestaña": ñ. Private to "prestada": dr.

"pestaña" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "prestada" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prestada ← perstada · pprestada · presatda · presstada · prestaad · prestadda · prestdaa · presttada

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pestaña" and "prestada" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pestaña" is a noun and "prestada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pestaña" or "prestada"?
"prestada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,846 in our Spanish list, against #24,600 for "pestaña". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pestaña" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prestada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,018 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pestaña" and "prestada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pestaña vs pestañear". 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 #137,018 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