engañavsengañenConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,587
“engaña” frequency rank
#32,189
“engañen” frequency rank
46776
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature engaña engañen
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de engañar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de engañar.

Where the eye mixes engaña and engañen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. engaña runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against engañen's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
engaña
7 ch
engañen

Look-alike desk: engaña vs engañen

A purely visual mix-up. engaña ([ẽŋˈgaɲa]) and engañen ([ẽŋˈgaɲẽn]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46776, 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]. engañen is at rank #32,189, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽŋˈgaɲẽn].

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 46776, this pair ranks #123,811 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of engaña vs engañen

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

"engaña" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "engañen" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "engaña" and "engañen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ẽŋˈgaɲa] versus [ẽŋˈgaɲẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "engaña" or "engañen"?
"engaña" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,587 in our Spanish list, against #32,189 for "engañen". 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 "engañen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,811 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "engaña" and "engañen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "engañen vs engañes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #123,811 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