engañavsengañeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,587
“engaña” frequency rank
#33,108
“engañe” frequency rank
47695
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature engaña engañe
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de engañar. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de engañar.

Where the eye mixes engaña and engañe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. engaña and engañe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
engaña
6 ch
engañe

Visual trap between engaña and engañe

A purely visual mix-up. engaña ([ẽŋˈgaɲa]) and engañe ([ẽŋˈgaɲe]) 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 - a in “engaña” becomes e in “engañe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47695, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

engaña is recorded at frequency rank #14,587, classified as averb, pronounced [ẽŋˈgaɲa]. engañe is at rank #33,108, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽŋˈgaɲe].

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 47695, this pair ranks #118,615 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of engaña vs engañe

Shared letters: aegnñ. Private to "engaña": -. Private to "engañe": -.

"engaña" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "engañe" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "engaña" and "engañe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ẽŋˈgaɲa] versus [ẽŋˈgaɲe]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "engaña" vs "engañe" - which ranks higher?
"engaña" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,587 in our Spanish list, against #33,108 for "engañe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "engaña" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "engañe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,615 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "engaña" and "engañe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "engañe vs engañes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #118,615 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