Which to use
“sustentada” is a participle and “sustentado” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,982
- “sustentada” frequency rank
- #38,411
- “sustentado” frequency rank
- 77393
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sustentada | sustentado |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forma del femenino de sustentado, participio de sustentar. | Participio de sustentar. |
Where the eye mixes sustentada and sustentado
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. sustentada and sustentado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses sustentada with sustentado
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sustentada is [sust̪ẽn̪ˈt̪að̞a] while sustentado is [sust̪ẽn̪ˈt̪að̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “sustentada” becomes o in “sustentado”, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sustentada is recorded at frequency rank #38,982, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [sust̪ẽn̪ˈt̪að̞a]. sustentado is at rank #38,411, tagged as averb, pronounced [sust̪ẽn̪ˈt̪að̞o].
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 77393, this pair ranks #16,089 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sustentada vs sustentado
Shared letters: adenstu. Private to "sustentada": -. Private to "sustentado": o.
"sustentada" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCV · "sustentado" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- sustentada ← ssustentada · ssutentada · susetntada · susstentada · sustenatda · sustenntada · sustentaad · sustentadda
- sustentado ← ssustentado · ssutentado · susetntado · susstentado · sustenatdo · sustenntado · sustentaddo · sustentaod
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sustentada" for "sustentado" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "sustentada" or "sustentado" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sustentada" and "sustentado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sustentada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sustentado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,089 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sustentada" and "sustentado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sustentada vs sustentan". 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 #16,089 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.