recuperavsrecuperadoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“recupera” and “recuperado” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,207
“recupera” frequency rank
#8,865
“recuperado” frequency rank
19072
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recupera recuperado
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de recuperar o de recuperarse. Participio de recuperar.

Where the eye mixes recupera and recuperado

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

8 ch
recupera
10 ch
recuperado

Why the eye confuses recupera with recuperado

A purely visual mix-up. recupera ([rekuˈpeɾa]) and recuperado ([rekupeˈɾað̞o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “recupera” sits inside “recuperado”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recupera is recorded at frequency rank #10,207, classified as averb, pronounced [rekuˈpeɾa]. recuperado is at rank #8,865, tagged as averb, pronounced [rekupeˈɾað̞o].

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 19072, this pair ranks #265,320 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of recupera vs recuperado

Shared letters: acepru. Private to "recupera": -. Private to "recuperado": do.

"recupera" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "recuperado" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recuperaercupera · rceupera · reccupera · recpuera · recuepra · recupear · recuppera · recuprea
  • recuperadoercuperado · rceuperado · reccuperado · recpuerado · recueprado · recupeardo · recuperaddo · recuperaod

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "recupera" and "recuperado" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([rekuˈpeɾa] versus [rekupeˈɾað̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "recupera" or "recuperado" show up more?
"recuperado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,865 in our Spanish list, against #10,207 for "recupera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "recupera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recuperado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,320 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recupera" and "recuperado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recupera vs recuperes". 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 #265,320 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