caervscesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: caer is a verb, ces is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caer” is a verb and “ces” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,628
“caer” frequency rank
#23,714
“ces” frequency rank
25342
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caer ces
Definition Moverse de arriba hacia abajo por efecto de la fuerza de gravedad. Estos.

Where the eye mixes caer and ces

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
caer
3 ch
ces

Look-alike desk: caer vs ces

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: caer is [kaˈeɾ] while ces is [se]. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caer is recorded at frequency rank #1,628, classified as averb, pronounced [kaˈeɾ]. ces is at rank #23,714, tagged as apron, pronounced [se].

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 25342, this pair ranks #236,876 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caer vs ces

Shared letters: ce. Private to "caer": ar. Private to "ces": s.

"caer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "ces" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caercaerr · ccaer · cear

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caer" for "ces" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caer" is a verb and "ces" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "caer" or "ces" show up more?
"caer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,628 in our Spanish list, against #23,714 for "ces". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #236,876 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caer" and "ces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ces vs cuc". 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 #236,876 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