tomavstomaráConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#869
“toma” frequency rank
#9,048
“tomará” frequency rank
9917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toma tomará
Definition Acción o efecto de tomar (recibir o encargarse de algo). Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de tomar o de tomarse.

Where the eye mixes toma and tomará

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
toma
6 ch
tomará

Why the eye confuses toma with tomará

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: toma is [ˈt̪oma] while tomará is [t̪omaˈɾa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “toma” sits inside “tomará”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

toma is recorded at frequency rank #869, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪oma]. tomará is at rank #9,048, tagged as averb, pronounced [t̪omaˈɾa].

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 9917, this pair ranks #300,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of toma vs tomará

Shared letters: amot. Private to "toma": -. Private to "tomará": .

"toma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tomará" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomaotma · tmoa · toam · tomma · ttoma

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "toma" and "tomará" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "toma" is a noun and "tomará" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "toma" or "tomará" show up more?
"toma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #869 in our Spanish list, against #9,048 for "tomará". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "toma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tomará" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "toma" and "tomará" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tomará vs tomase". 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 #300,429 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