tomarvstomaráWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#440
“tomar” frequency rank
#9,048
“tomará” frequency rank
9488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tomar tomará
Definition Coger alguna cosa con la mano. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de tomar o de tomarse.

Where the eye mixes tomar and tomará

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tomar
6 ch
tomará

Look-alike desk: tomar vs tomará

A purely visual mix-up. tomar ([t̪oˈmaɾ]) and tomará ([t̪omaˈɾa]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “tomar” sits inside “tomará”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tomar is recorded at frequency rank #440, classified as averb, pronounced [t̪oˈmaɾ]. 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 9488, this pair ranks #301,780 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tomar vs tomará

Shared letters: amort. Private to "tomar": -. Private to "tomará": á.

"tomar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tomará" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomarotmar · tmoar · toamr · tomarr · tommar · tomra · ttomar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tomar" for "tomará" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([t̪oˈmaɾ] versus [t̪omaˈɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tomar" or "tomará"?
"tomar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #440 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tomar" 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 #301,780 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tomar" 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 #301,780 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