calhavscargaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“calha” and “carga” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,453
“calha” frequency rank
#2,309
“carga” frequency rank
32762
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calha carga
Definition amarelinha o que pode ser ou é transportado por pessoas, animais ou veículos

Where the eye mixes calha and carga

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
calha
5 ch
carga

Visual trap between calha and carga

A purely visual mix-up. calha (/ˈka.ʎɐ/) and carga (/ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

calha is recorded at frequency rank #30,453, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.ʎɐ/. carga is at rank #2,309, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/.

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 32762, this pair ranks #34,942 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of calha vs carga

Shared letters: ac. Private to "calha": hl. Private to "carga": gr.

"calha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "carga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • calhaaclha · cahla · calah · calhha · callha · ccalha · claha
  • cargaacrga · cagra · carag · cargga · carrga · ccarga · craga

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "calha" for "carga" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.ʎɐ/ versus /ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "calha" vs "carga" - which ranks higher?
"carga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,309 in our Portuguese list, against #30,453 for "calha". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "calha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,942 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calha" and "carga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calha vs canja". 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 #34,942 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list