engañenvsengañesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,189
“engañen” frequency rank
#39,728
“engañes” frequency rank
71917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature engañen engañes
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de engañar. Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de subjuntivo de engañar.

Where the eye mixes engañen and engañes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. engañen and engañes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
engañen
7 ch
engañes

Why the eye confuses engañen with engañes

A purely visual mix-up. engañen ([ẽŋˈgaɲẽn]) 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 a single letter - n in “engañen” becomes s in “engañes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

engañen is recorded at frequency rank #32,189, classified as averb, pronounced [ẽŋˈgaɲẽn]. 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 71917, this pair ranks #26,461 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of engañen vs engañes

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

"engañen" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "engañes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "engañen" and "engañes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ẽŋˈgaɲẽn] versus [ẽŋˈgaɲes]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "engañen" vs "engañes" - which ranks higher?
"engañen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,189 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 "engañen" 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 #26,461 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "engañen" and "engañes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "engañemos vs engañes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #26,461 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