carregarvscarreraConfusable pair

Quick tell: carregar is a verb, carrera is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“carregar” is a verb and “carrera” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,379
“carregar” frequency rank
#49,341
“carrera” frequency rank
52720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carregar carrera
Definition meter carga em ou sobre rua

Where the eye mixes carregar and carrera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. carregar runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against carrera's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
carregar
7 ch
carrera

Visual trap between carregar and carrera

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carregar is /kɐ.Rɨ.ˈɡaɾ/ while carrera is /kaˈreɾa/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carregar is recorded at frequency rank #3,379, classified as averb, pronounced /kɐ.Rɨ.ˈɡaɾ/. 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 52720, this pair ranks #12,548 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carregar vs carrera

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

"carregar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "carrera" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carregar ← acrregar · caregar · carergar · carreagr · carregarr · carreggar · carregra · carrgear
  • carrera ← acrrera · carera · carerra · carrear · carrerra · carrrea · ccarrera · crarera

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "carregar" for "carrera" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carregar" is a verb and "carrera" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "carregar" or "carrera"?
"carregar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,379 in our Portuguese list, against #49,341 for "carrera". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "carregar" 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 #12,548 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carregar" 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 #12,548 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