Which to use
“caben” is a verb and “cabos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,778
- “caben” frequency rank
- #14,535
- “cabos” frequency rank
- 29313
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caben | cabos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de caber. | En las personas, ojos, cejas y pelo. |
Where the eye mixes caben and cabos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. caben and cabos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between caben and cabos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: caben is [ˈkaβ̞ẽn] while cabos is [ˈkaβ̞os]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caben is recorded at frequency rank #14,778, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkaβ̞ẽn]. cabos is at rank #14,535, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaβ̞os].
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 29313, this pair ranks #217,627 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of caben vs cabos
Shared letters: abc. Private to "caben": en. Private to "cabos": os.
"caben" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cabos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "caben" and "cabos" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "caben" or "cabos" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "caben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cabos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #217,627 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caben" and "cabos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caben vs calmen". 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 #217,627 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.