cargavscataWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,309
“carga” frequency rank
#31,681
“cata” frequency rank
33990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carga cata
Definition o que pode ser ou é transportado por pessoas, animais ou veículos busca

Where the eye mixes carga and cata

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

5 ch
carga
4 ch
cata

Why the eye confuses carga with cata

A purely visual mix-up. carga (/ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/) and cata (/ˈka.tɐ/) 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 33990, 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/. cata is at rank #31,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.tɐ/.

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 33990, this pair ranks #33,384 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carga vs cata

Shared letters: ac. Private to "carga": gr. Private to "cata": t.

"carga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cargaacrga · cagra · carag · cargga · carrga · ccarga · craga
  • cataacta · caat · catta · ccata · ctaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carga" and "cata" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/ versus /ˈka.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "carga" or "cata" show up more?
"carga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,309 in our Portuguese list, against #31,681 for "cata". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "carga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,384 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carga" and "cata" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cata vs copta". 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 #33,384 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