acabavsacabenConfusable pair

Which to use

“acaba” and “acaben” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,232
“acaba” frequency rank
#15,762
“acaben” frequency rank
16994
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acaba acaben
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de acabar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de acabar.

Where the eye mixes acaba and acaben

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
acaba
6 ch
acaben

Visual trap between acaba and acaben

A purely visual mix-up. acaba ([aˈkaβ̞a]) and acaben ([aˈkaβ̞ẽn]) 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 16994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acaba is recorded at frequency rank #1,232, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈkaβ̞a]. acaben is at rank #15,762, tagged as averb, pronounced [aˈkaβ̞ẽn].

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 16994, this pair ranks #273,959 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acaba vs acaben

Shared letters: abc. Private to "acaba": -. Private to "acaben": en.

"acaba" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "acaben" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acabaaacba · acaab · acabba · acava · acbaa · accaba · caaba
  • acabenaacben · acabben · acabenn · acabne · acaebn · acaven · acbaen · accaben

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "acaba" and "acaben" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([aˈkaβ̞a] versus [aˈkaβ̞ẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acaba" or "acaben"?
"acaba" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,232 in our Spanish list, against #15,762 for "acaben". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "acaba" and "acaben" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acaba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acaben" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,959 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acaba" and "acaben" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acaben vs aclaren". 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 #273,959 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list