cargavscausaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,309
“carga” frequency rank
#340
“causa” frequency rank
2649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carga causa
Definition o que pode ser ou é transportado por pessoas, animais ou veículos aquilo ou aquele que ocasiona um acontecimento ou faz que uma coisa exista

Where the eye mixes carga and causa

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

5 ch
carga
5 ch
causa

Visual trap between carga and causa

A purely visual mix-up. carga (/ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/) and causa (/ˈkaw.zɐ/) 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 2649, 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/. causa is at rank #340, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaw.zɐ/.

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 2649, this pair ranks #72,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of carga vs causa

Shared letters: ac. Private to "carga": gr. Private to "causa": su.

"carga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "causa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cargaacrga · cagra · carag · cargga · carrga · ccarga · craga
  • causaacusa · casua · cauas · caussa · ccausa · cuasa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "carga" for "causa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/ versus /ˈkaw.zɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "carga" or "causa"?
"causa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #340 in our Portuguese list, against #2,309 for "carga". 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 "causa" 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 "causa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carga" and "causa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carga vs cerda". 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 #72,668 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