saltenvssosténTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#34,333
“salten” frequency rank
#18,689
“sostén” frequency rank
53022
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salten sostén
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de saltar. Acción o efecto de sostener

Where the eye mixes salten and sostén

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

6 ch
salten
6 ch
sostén

Visual trap between salten and sostén

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: salten is [ˈsal̪t̪ẽn] while sostén is [sosˈt̪ẽn]. 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 53022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salten is recorded at frequency rank #34,333, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈsal̪t̪ẽn]. sostén is at rank #18,689, tagged as anoun, pronounced [sosˈt̪ẽn].

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 53022, this pair ranks #89,902 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salten vs sostén

Shared letters: nst. Private to "salten": ael. Private to "sostén": .

"salten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sostén" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saltenaslten · saletn · sallten · saltenn · saltne · saltten · satlen · slaten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "salten" for "sostén" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "salten" is a verb and "sostén" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "salten" or "sostén" show up more?
"sostén" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,689 in our Spanish list, against #34,333 for "salten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "salten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sostén" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,902 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salten" and "sostén" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "salman vs salten". 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 #89,902 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