Which to use
“carried” and “carries” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,747
- “carried” frequency rank
- #4,831
- “carries” frequency rank
- 6578
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carried | carries |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of carry | third-person singular simple present indicative of carry |
Where the eye mixes carried and carries
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. carried and carries follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between carried and carries
A purely visual mix-up. carried (/ˈkæɹ.ɪd/) and carries (/ˈkæɹ.ɪz/) 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 a single letter - d in “carried” becomes s in “carries”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carried is recorded at frequency rank #1,747, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkæɹ.ɪd/. carries is at rank #4,831, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkæɹ.ɪz/.
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 6578, this pair ranks #510,864 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of carried vs carries
Shared letters: aceir. Private to "carried": d. Private to "carries": s.
"carried" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "carries" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "carried" and "carries" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "carried" vs "carries" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "carried" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carries" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #510,864 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carried" and "carries" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "candied vs carried". 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 #510,864 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.