cabenvscadeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,778
“caben” frequency rank
#45,173
“cade” frequency rank
59951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caben cade
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de caber. (Phytotoma rara) Ave de la familia Phytotomidae. Mide 19 cm. De plumaje en distintos tonos de pardo con secciones negruzcas, frente y corona pardo rojizas, pico corto y grueso de color negro e iris rojos, con dimorfismo sexual. Se alimenta de plantas y de brotes tiernos de árboles. Ave solitaria, que en algunas épocas del año forma pequeñas bandadas. Frecuenta campos, huertos y jardines.

Where the eye mixes caben and cade

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

5 ch
caben
4 ch
cade

Visual trap between caben and cade

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: caben is [ˈkaβ̞ẽn] while cade is [ˈkað̞e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59951, 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]. cade is at rank #45,173, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkað̞e].

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 59951, this pair ranks #60,705 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caben vs cade

Shared letters: ace. Private to "caben": bn. Private to "cade": d.

"caben" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabenacben · cabben · cabenn · cabne · caebn · caven · cbaen · ccaben
  • cadeacde · cadde · caed · ccade · cdae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caben" and "cade" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caben" is a verb and "cade" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "caben" or "cade" show up more?
"caben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,778 in our Spanish list, against #45,173 for "cade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "caben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,705 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caben" and "cade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cade vs catre". 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 #60,705 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