Which to use
“castigan” and “castigar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,800
- “castigan” frequency rank
- #9,417
- “castigar” frequency rank
- 40217
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | castigan | castigar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de castigar o de castigarse. | Imponer un castigo al que ha delinquido, infringido una regla o faltado en alguna cosa. |
Where the eye mixes castigan and castigar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. castigan and castigar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between castigan and castigar
A purely visual mix-up. castigan ([kasˈt̪iɣ̞ãn]) and castigar ([kast̪iˈɣ̞aɾ]) 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 - n in “castigan” becomes r in “castigar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
castigan is recorded at frequency rank #30,800, classified as averb, pronounced [kasˈt̪iɣ̞ãn]. castigar is at rank #9,417, tagged as averb, pronounced [kast̪iˈɣ̞aɾ].
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 40217, this pair ranks #160,270 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of castigan vs castigar
Shared letters: acgist. Private to "castigan": n. Private to "castigar": r.
"castigan" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "castigar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "castigan" and "castigar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "castigan" vs "castigar" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "castigan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "castigar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #160,270 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "castigan" and "castigar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "castigan vs castigará". 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 #160,270 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.