engañavsengañesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,587
“engaña” frequency rank
#39,728
“engañes” frequency rank
54315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature engaña engañes
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de engañar. Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de subjuntivo de engañar.

Where the eye mixes engaña and engañes

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

6 ch
engaña
7 ch
engañes

Look-alike desk: engaña vs engañes

A purely visual mix-up. engaña ([ẽŋˈgaɲa]) and engañes ([ẽŋˈgaɲes]) 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 54315, 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]. engañes is at rank #39,728, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽŋˈgaɲes].

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 54315, this pair ranks #83,888 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of engaña vs engañes

Shared letters: aegnñ. Private to "engaña": -. Private to "engañes": s.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "engaña" and "engañes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ẽŋˈgaɲa] versus [ẽŋˈgaɲes]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "engaña" or "engañes" show up more?
"engaña" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,587 in our Spanish list, against #39,728 for "engañes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "engañes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,888 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "engaña" and "engañes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "engañemos vs engañes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #83,888 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