caguesvscanesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#43,437
“cagues” frequency rank
#42,315
“canes” frequency rank
85752
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cagues canes
Definition Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de subjuntivo de cagar o de cagarse. Forma del plural de can.

Where the eye mixes cagues and canes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cagues runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against canes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cagues
5 ch
canes

Look-alike desk: cagues vs canes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cagues is [ˈkaɣ̞es] while canes is [ˈkanes]. 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 85752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cagues is recorded at frequency rank #43,437, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkaɣ̞es]. canes is at rank #42,315, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkanes].

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 85752, this pair ranks #5,859 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cagues vs canes

Shared letters: aces. Private to "cagues": gu. Private to "canes": n.

"cagues" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "canes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cagues ← acgues · cageus · caggues · caguess · caguse · cauges · ccagues · cgaues
  • canes ← acnes · caens · caness · ccanes · cnaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cagues" and "canes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cagues" is a verb and "canes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cagues" or "canes" show up more?
"canes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,315 in our Spanish list, against #43,437 for "cagues". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cagues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "canes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,859 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cagues" and "canes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cagones vs cagues". 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 #5,859 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