camarónvscargaronTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#21,592
“camarón” frequency rank
#33,987
“cargaron” frequency rank
55579
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature camarón cargaron
Definition (infraorden Caridea, antiguamente Natantia) Cualquiera de varios centenares de especies de crustáceos decápodos acuáticos, marinos o de agua dulce, distintivos por poseer dos pares de quelas, y una marcada inclinación en el abdomen, cuyo segundo segmento se solapa con los adyacentes. Son muy apreciados en gastronomía, aunque en el uso culinario la distinción con los langostinos (Dendrobranchiata) es lábil. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de cargar.

Where the eye mixes camarón and cargaron

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. camarón runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against cargaron's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
camarón
8 ch
cargaron

Visual trap between camarón and cargaron

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: camarón is [kamaˈɾõn] while cargaron is [kaɾˈɣ̞aɾõn]. 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 55579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

camarón is recorded at frequency rank #21,592, classified as anoun, pronounced [kamaˈɾõn]. cargaron is at rank #33,987, tagged as averb, pronounced [kaɾˈɣ̞aɾõn].

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 55579, this pair ranks #78,278 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of camarón vs cargaron

Shared letters: acnr. Private to "camarón": mó. Private to "cargaron": go.

"camarón" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "cargaron" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cargaron ← acrgaron · cagraron · caragron · cargaorn · cargarno · cargaronn · cargarron · carggaron

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "camarón" for "cargaron" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "camarón" is a noun and "cargaron" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "camarón" or "cargaron" show up more?
"camarón" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,592 in our Spanish list, against #33,987 for "cargaron". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "camarón" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cargaron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #78,278 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "camarón" and "cargaron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "captaron vs cargaron". 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 #78,278 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