captanvscarganConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,093
“captan” frequency rank
#17,893
“cargan” frequency rank
46986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature captan cargan
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de captar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de cargar.

Where the eye mixes captan and cargan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
captan
6 ch
cargan

Visual trap between captan and cargan

A purely visual mix-up. captan ([ˈkapt̪ãn]) and cargan ([ˈkaɾɣ̞ãn]) 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 46986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

captan is recorded at frequency rank #29,093, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkapt̪ãn]. cargan is at rank #17,893, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkaɾɣ̞ãn].

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 46986, this pair ranks #122,631 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of captan vs cargan

Shared letters: acn. Private to "captan": pt. Private to "cargan": gr.

"captan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cargan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • captanacptan · capatn · capptan · captann · captna · capttan · catpan · ccaptan
  • carganacrgan · cagran · caragn · cargann · carggan · cargna · carrgan · ccargan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "captan" and "cargan" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkapt̪ãn] versus [ˈkaɾɣ̞ãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "captan" or "cargan" show up more?
"cargan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,893 in our Spanish list, against #29,093 for "captan". 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 "captan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cargan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,631 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "captan" and "cargan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "captan vs captaron". 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 #122,631 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