caguesvscariesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#43,437
“cagues” frequency rank
#30,799
“caries” frequency rank
74236
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cagues caries
Definition Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de subjuntivo de cagar o de cagarse. Destrucción progresiva del diente por la acción de bacterias presentes en la placa dental.

Where the eye mixes cagues and caries

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cagues and caries follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
cagues
6 ch
caries

Why the eye confuses cagues with caries

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cagues is [ˈkaɣ̞es] while caries is [ˈkaɾjes]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74236, 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]. caries is at rank #30,799, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɾjes].

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 74236, this pair ranks #21,683 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cagues vs caries

Shared letters: aces. Private to "cagues": gu. Private to "caries": ir.

"cagues" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "caries" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cagues ← acgues · cageus · caggues · caguess · caguse · cauges · ccagues · cgaues
  • caries ← acries · caires · careis · cariess · carise · carries · ccaries · craies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cagues" for "caries" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cagues" is a verb and "caries" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cagues" vs "caries" - which ranks higher?
"caries" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,799 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.

After this comparison

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 "caries" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,683 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cagues" and "caries" 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 #21,683 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