Which to use
“café” is a noun and “carpe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,337
- “café” frequency rank
- #42,868
- “carpe” frequency rank
- 44205
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | café | carpe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Semilla del fruto del cafeto, rica en el estimulante cafeína, que se emplea tostada y molida para preparar una bebida con estas propiedades que se consume en casi todo el mundo. Es el segundo producto en volumen en el comercio internacional, solo superado por el petróleo. | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de carpir o de carpirse. |
Where the eye mixes café and carpe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. café runs 4 letters (CVCV) against carpe's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between café and carpe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: café is [kaˈfe] while carpe is [ˈkaɾpe]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
café is recorded at frequency rank #1,337, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaˈfe]. carpe is at rank #42,868, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkaɾpe].
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 44205, this pair ranks #138,363 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of café vs carpe
Shared letters: ac. Private to "café": fé. Private to "carpe": epr.
"café" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "carpe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- carpe ← acrpe · capre · carep · carppe · carrpe · ccarpe · crape
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "café" for "carpe" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "café" or "carpe" 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 "café" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carpe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #138,363 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "café" and "carpe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carpe 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 #138,363 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.