castiganvscastigueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,800
“castigan” frequency rank
#32,125
“castigue” frequency rank
62925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature castigan castigue
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de castigar o de castigarse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de castigar o de castigarse.

Where the eye mixes castigan and castigue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
castigan
8 ch
castigue

Look-alike desk: castigan vs castigue

A purely visual mix-up. castigan ([kasˈt̪iɣ̞ãn]) and castigue ([kasˈt̪iɣ̞e]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62925, 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]. castigue is at rank #32,125, tagged as averb, pronounced [kasˈt̪iɣ̞e].

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 62925, this pair ranks #50,416 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of castigan vs castigue

Shared letters: acgist. Private to "castigan": n. Private to "castigue": eu.

"castigan" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "castigue" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • castiganacstigan · casitgan · casstigan · castgian · castiagn · castigann · castiggan · castigna
  • castigueacstigue · casitgue · casstigue · castgiue · castigeu · castiggue · castiuge · casttigue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "castigan" and "castigue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([kasˈt̪iɣ̞ãn] versus [kasˈt̪iɣ̞e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "castigan" vs "castigue" - which ranks higher?
"castigan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,800 in our Spanish list, against #32,125 for "castigue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "castigue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,416 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "castigan" and "castigue" 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 #50,416 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