cardsvsCargoTell them apart

Quick tell: cards is a unknown, Cargo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cards” is an unknown and “Cargo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,563
“cards” frequency rank
#24,666
“Cargo” frequency rank
46229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cards Cargo
Definition Plural von card die Ladung eines Schiffes

Where the eye mixes cards and Cargo

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

5 ch
cards
5 ch
Cargo

Visual trap between cards and Cargo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cards is [kɑːds] while Cargo is [ˈkaʁɡo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cards is recorded at frequency rank #21,563, classified as anunknown, pronounced [kɑːds]. Cargo is at rank #24,666, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaʁɡo].

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 46229, this pair ranks #1,326,249 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cards vs Cargo

Shared letters: acr. Private to "cards": ds. Private to "Cargo": go.

"cards" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Cargo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cardsacrds · cadrs · cardds · cardss · carrds · carsd · ccards · crads
  • Cargoacrgo · cagro · carggo · carog · carrgo · ccargo · crago

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cards" for "Cargo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cards" is an unknown and "Cargo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "cards" or "Cargo" show up more?
"cards" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,563 in our German list, against #24,666 for "Cargo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cards" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cargo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,326,249 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cards" and "Cargo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cargo vs carr". 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 #1,326,249 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list