encaravsengañaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,573
“encara” frequency rank
#14,587
“engaña” frequency rank
48160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encara engaña
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de encarar. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de engañar.

Where the eye mixes encara and engaña

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. encara and engaña follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
encara
6 ch
engaña

Look-alike desk: encara vs engaña

A purely visual mix-up. encara ([ẽŋˈkaɾa]) and engaña ([ẽŋˈgaɲa]) 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 48160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encara is recorded at frequency rank #33,573, classified as averb, pronounced [ẽŋˈkaɾa]. engaña is at rank #14,587, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽŋˈgaɲa].

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 48160, this pair ranks #116,025 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of encara vs engaña

Shared letters: aen. Private to "encara": cr. Private to "engaña": gñ.

"encara" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "engaña" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encara ← ecnara · enacra · encaar · enccara · encraa · enncara · necara

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "encara" and "engaña" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ẽŋˈkaɾa] versus [ẽŋˈgaɲa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "encara" or "engaña"?
"engaña" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,587 in our Spanish list, against #33,573 for "encara". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "encara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "engaña" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #116,025 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encara" and "engaña" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encara vs encarnar". 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 #116,025 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