cargavscargoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,469
“carga” frequency rank
#603
“cargo” frequency rank
2072
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carga cargo
Definition Acción o efecto de cargar. Puesto de responsabilidad en un sistema organizativo.

Where the eye mixes carga and cargo

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

5 ch
carga
5 ch
cargo

Look-alike desk: carga vs cargo

A purely visual mix-up. carga ([ˈkaɾɣ̞a]) and cargo ([ˈkaɾɣ̞o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “carga” becomes o in “cargo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carga is recorded at frequency rank #1,469, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɾɣ̞a]. cargo is at rank #603, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɾɣ̞o].

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 2072, this pair ranks #321,025 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of carga vs cargo

Shared letters: acgr. Private to "carga": -. Private to "cargo": o.

"carga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cargo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cargaacrga · cagra · carag · cargga · carrga · ccarga · craga
  • cargoacrgo · cagro · carggo · carog · carrgo · ccargo · crago

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "carga" for "cargo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkaɾɣ̞a] versus [ˈkaɾɣ̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "carga" vs "cargo" - which ranks higher?
"cargo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #603 in our Spanish list, against #1,469 for "carga". 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 "carga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cargo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,025 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carga" and "cargo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carga vs cart". 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 #321,025 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