cargavscarregaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,309
“carga” frequency rank
#5,389
“carrega” frequency rank
7698
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carga carrega
Definition o que pode ser ou é transportado por pessoas, animais ou veículos planta poácea que medra em lugares pantanosos

Where the eye mixes carga and carrega

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

5 ch
carga
7 ch
carrega

Why the eye confuses carga with carrega

A purely visual mix-up. carga (/ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/) and carrega (/kɐ'xɛ.gɐ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carga is recorded at frequency rank #2,309, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/. carrega is at rank #5,389, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ'xɛ.gɐ/.

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 7698, this pair ranks #66,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of carga vs carrega

Shared letters: acgr. Private to "carga": -. Private to "carrega": e.

"carga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "carrega" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carga ← acrga · cagra · carag · cargga · carrga · ccarga · craga
  • carrega ← acrrega · carega · carerga · carreag · carregga · carrgea · ccarrega · crarega

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "carga" for "carrega" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/ versus /kɐ'xɛ.gɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "carga" or "carrega"?
"carga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,309 in our Portuguese list, against #5,389 for "carrega". 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 "carga" and "carrega" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "carga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carrega" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carga" and "carrega" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carrega vs carrera". 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 #66,377 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