encargadovsencarnadaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: encargado is a adjective, encarnada is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“encargado” is an adjective and “encarnada” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,116
“encargado” frequency rank
#47,100
“encarnada” frequency rank
50216
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encargado encarnada
Definition Que ha recibido un encargo. Forma del femenino de encarnado, participio de encarnar.

Where the eye mixes encargado and encarnada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. encargado and encarnada follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
encargado
9 ch
encarnada

Visual trap between encargado and encarnada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: encargado is [ẽŋkaɾˈɣ̞að̞o] while encarnada is [ẽŋkaɾˈnað̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encargado is recorded at frequency rank #3,116, classified as anadj, pronounced [ẽŋkaɾˈɣ̞að̞o]. encarnada is at rank #47,100, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [ẽŋkaɾˈnað̞a].

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 50216, this pair ranks #104,449 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of encargado vs encarnada

Shared letters: acdenr. Private to "encargado": go. Private to "encarnada": -.

"encargado" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV  ·  "encarnada" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encargadoecnargado · enacrgado · encagrado · encaragdo · encargaddo · encargaod · encargdao · encarggado
  • encarnadaecnarnada · enacrnada · encanrada · encaranda · encarnaad · encarnadda · encarndaa · encarnnada

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "encargado" and "encarnada" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "encargado" is an adjective and "encarnada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "encargado" or "encarnada" show up more?
"encargado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,116 in our Spanish list, against #47,100 for "encarnada". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encargado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "encarnada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,449 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encargado" and "encarnada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encarnada 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 #104,449 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