cafévscraneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“café” and “crane” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,337
“café” frequency rank
#39,140
“crane” frequency rank
40477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature café crane
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. Grulla.

Where the eye mixes café and crane

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

4 ch
café
5 ch
crane

Look-alike desk: café vs crane

A purely visual mix-up. café ([kaˈfe]) and crane (/kɹeɪn/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40477, 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]. crane is at rank #39,140, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹeɪn/.

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 40477, this pair ranks #158,875 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of café vs crane

Shared letters: ac. Private to "café": . Private to "crane": enr.

"café" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "crane" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • craneccrane · cranne · crnae · crrane · rcane

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "café" and "crane" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kaˈfe] versus /kɹeɪn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "café" or "crane" show up more?
"café" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,337 in our Spanish list, against #39,140 for "crane". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "café" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crane" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,875 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "café" and "crane" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cade vs crane". 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 #158,875 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