carganvscríanTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,893
“cargan” frequency rank
#30,409
“crían” frequency rank
48302
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cargan crían
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de cargar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de criar o de criarse.

Where the eye mixes cargan and crían

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

6 ch
cargan
5 ch
crían

Look-alike desk: cargan vs crían

A purely visual mix-up. cargan ([ˈkaɾɣ̞ãn]) and crían ([ˈkɾiãn]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48302, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cargan is recorded at frequency rank #17,893, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkaɾɣ̞ãn]. crían is at rank #30,409, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkɾiãn].

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 48302, this pair ranks #115,246 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cargan vs crían

Shared letters: acnr. Private to "cargan": g. Private to "crían": í.

"cargan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "crían" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carganacrgan · cagran · caragn · cargann · carggan · cargna · carrgan · ccargan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cargan" for "crían" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkaɾɣ̞ãn] versus [ˈkɾiãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cargan" or "crían" show up more?
"cargan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,893 in our Spanish list, against #30,409 for "crían". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cargan" and "crían" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cargan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crían" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,246 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cargan" and "crían" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs crían". 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 #115,246 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