carregavscarreraTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,389
“carrega” frequency rank
#49,341
“carrera” frequency rank
54730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carrega carrera
Definition planta poácea que medra em lugares pantanosos rua

Where the eye mixes carrega and carrera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. carrega and carrera follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
carrega
7 ch
carrera

Visual trap between carrega and carrera

A purely visual mix-up. carrega (/kɐ'xɛ.gɐ/) and carrera (/kaˈreɾa/) 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 a single letter - g in “carrega” becomes r in “carrera”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carrega is recorded at frequency rank #5,389, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ'xɛ.gɐ/. carrera is at rank #49,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kaˈreɾa/.

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 54730, this pair ranks #11,067 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carrega vs carrera

Shared letters: acer. Private to "carrega": g. Private to "carrera": -.

"carrega" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "carrera" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carrega ← acrrega · carega · carerga · carreag · carregga · carrgea · ccarrega · crarega
  • carrera ← acrrera · carera · carerra · carrear · carrerra · carrrea · ccarrera · crarera

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "carrega" and "carrera" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ'xɛ.gɐ/ versus /kaˈreɾa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "carrega" or "carrera" show up more?
"carrega" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,389 in our Portuguese list, against #49,341 for "carrera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "carrega" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carrera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,067 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carrega" and "carrera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carreiro 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 #11,067 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