cafésvscañosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,534
“cafés” frequency rank
#21,925
“caños” frequency rank
34459
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cafés caños
Definition Forma del plural de café. Forma del plural de caño.

Where the eye mixes cafés and caños

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cafés and caños follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
cafés
5 ch
caños

Look-alike desk: cafés vs caños

A purely visual mix-up. cafés ([kaˈfes]) and caños ([ˈkaɲos]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34459, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cafés is recorded at frequency rank #12,534, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaˈfes]. caños is at rank #21,925, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɲos].

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 34459, this pair ranks #191,339 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cafés vs caños

Shared letters: acs. Private to "cafés": . Private to "caños": .

"cafés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "caños" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cafés" and "caños" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kaˈfes] versus [ˈkaɲos]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cafés" or "caños"?
"cafés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,534 in our Spanish list, against #21,925 for "caños". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cafés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caños" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,339 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cafés" and "caños" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caños vs cronos". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #191,339 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