cargosvscartonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“cargos” and “cartons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,920
“cargos” frequency rank
#8,967
“cartons” frequency rank
43887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cargos cartons
Definition Pluriel de cargo. Pluriel de carton.

Where the eye mixes cargos and cartons

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

6 ch
cargos
7 ch
cartons

Look-alike desk: cargos vs cartons

A purely visual mix-up. cargos (\kaʁ.ɡo\) and cartons (\kaʁ.tɔ̃\) 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 43887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cargos is recorded at frequency rank #34,920, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ.ɡo\. cartons is at rank #8,967, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ.tɔ̃\.

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 43887, this pair ranks #214,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cargos vs cartons

Shared letters: acors. Private to "cargos": g. Private to "cartons": nt.

"cargos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cartons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cargos ← acrgos · cagros · carggos · cargoss · cargso · carogs · carrgos · ccargos
  • cartons ← acrtons · carotns · carrtons · cartnos · cartonns · cartonss · cartosn · carttons

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cargos" and "cartons" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kaʁ.ɡo\ versus \kaʁ.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cargos" or "cartons"?
"cartons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,967 in our French list, against #34,920 for "cargos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cargos" and "cartons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cargos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cartons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #214,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cargos" and "cartons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cargos vs carpes". 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 #214,627 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list