CartagovscartasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Cartago is a name, cartas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Cartago” is a name and “cartas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,944
“Cartago” frequency rank
#1,929
“cartas” frequency rank
21873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cartago cartas
Definition Ciudad de la Antigüedad situada en el norte de África, en donde hoy está Túnez, que dominó el Mediterráneo. Forma del plural de carta.

Where the eye mixes Cartago and cartas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Cartago runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against cartas's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Cartago
6 ch
cartas

Look-alike desk: Cartago vs cartas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Cartago is [kaɾˈt̪aɣ̞o] while cartas is [ˈkaɾt̪as]. 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cartago is recorded at frequency rank #19,944, classified as aname, pronounced [kaɾˈt̪aɣ̞o]. cartas is at rank #1,929, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɾt̪as].

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 21873, this pair ranks #252,955 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Cartago vs cartas

Shared letters: acrt. Private to "Cartago": go. Private to "cartas": s.

"Cartago" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "cartas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cartago ← acrtago · caratgo · carrtago · cartaggo · cartaog · cartgao · carttago · catrago
  • cartas ← acrtas · carats · carrtas · cartass · cartsa · carttas · catras · ccartas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Cartago" and "cartas" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Cartago" is a name and "cartas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "Cartago" or "cartas" show up more?
"cartas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,929 in our Spanish list, against #19,944 for "Cartago". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Cartago" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cartas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,955 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cartago" and "cartas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cartago vs cartílago". 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 #252,955 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