marcanvsmarcaráWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,706
“marcan” frequency rank
#33,222
“marcará” frequency rank
43928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marcan marcará
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de marcar. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de marcar.

Where the eye mixes marcan and marcará

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

6 ch
marcan
7 ch
marcará

Why the eye confuses marcan with marcará

A purely visual mix-up. marcan ([ˈmaɾkãn]) and marcará ([maɾkaˈɾa]) 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 43928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marcan is recorded at frequency rank #10,706, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɾkãn]. marcará is at rank #33,222, tagged as averb, pronounced [maɾkaˈɾa].

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 43928, this pair ranks #139,876 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marcan vs marcará

Shared letters: acmr. Private to "marcan": n. Private to "marcará": á.

"marcan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "marcará" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marcanamrcan · macran · maracn · marcann · marccan · marcna · marrcan · mmarcan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marcan" for "marcará" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaɾkãn] versus [maɾkaˈɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "marcan" or "marcará"?
"marcan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,706 in our Spanish list, against #33,222 for "marcará". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marcan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marcará" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #139,876 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marcan" and "marcará" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marcará vs mareada". 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 #139,876 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