programarvsprogramasTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#12,682
“programar” frequency rank
#1,063
“programas” frequency rank
13745
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature programar programas
Definition Organizar con anticipación las actividades, partes o contenidos de un evento o serie de eventos, detallando su estructura. Forma del plural de programa.

Where the eye mixes programar and programas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
programar
9 ch
programas

Why the eye confuses programar with programas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: programar is [pɾoɣ̞ɾaˈmaɾ] while programas is [pɾoˈɣ̞ɾamas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “programar” becomes s in “programas”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

programar is recorded at frequency rank #12,682, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾoɣ̞ɾaˈmaɾ]. programas is at rank #1,063, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pɾoˈɣ̞ɾamas].

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 13745, this pair ranks #286,703 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of programar vs programas

Shared letters: agmopr. Private to "programar": -. Private to "programas": s.

"programar" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVC  ·  "programas" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • programarporgramar · pprogramar · prgoramar · progarmar · proggramar · prograamr · programarr · programmar
  • programasporgramas · pprogramas · prgoramas · progarmas · proggramas · prograams · programass · programmas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "programar" for "programas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "programar" is a verb and "programas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "programar" or "programas" show up more?
"programas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,063 in our Spanish list, against #12,682 for "programar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "programar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "programas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #286,703 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "programar" and "programas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "programan vs programar". 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 #286,703 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