cardvscarpeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#16,783
“card” frequency rank
#42,868
“carpe” frequency rank
59651
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature card carpe
Definition Tarjeta. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de carpir o de carpirse.

Where the eye mixes card and carpe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
card
5 ch
carpe

Look-alike desk: card vs carpe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: card is /kɑːd/ while carpe is [ˈkaɾpe]. 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 59651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

card is recorded at frequency rank #16,783, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɑːd/. carpe is at rank #42,868, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkaɾpe].

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 59651, this pair ranks #61,845 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of card vs carpe

Shared letters: acr. Private to "card": d. Private to "carpe": ep.

"card" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "carpe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cardacrd · cadr · cardd · carrd · ccard · crad
  • carpeacrpe · capre · carep · carppe · carrpe · ccarpe · crape

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "card" for "carpe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "card" is a noun and "carpe" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "card" or "carpe"?
"card" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,783 in our Spanish list, against #42,868 for "carpe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "card" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carpe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,845 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "card" and "carpe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carpe vs catre". 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 #61,845 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