acabanvsacaboWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,892
“acaban” frequency rank
#1,465
“acabo” frequency rank
5357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acaban acabo
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de acabar. Acabamiento o fin.

Where the eye mixes acaban and acabo

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

6 ch
acaban
5 ch
acabo

Visual trap between acaban and acabo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acaban is [aˈkaβ̞ãn] while acabo is [aˈkaβ̞o]. 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 5357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acaban is recorded at frequency rank #3,892, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈkaβ̞ãn]. acabo is at rank #1,465, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aˈkaβ̞o].

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 5357, this pair ranks #313,829 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acaban vs acabo

Shared letters: abc. Private to "acaban": n. Private to "acabo": o.

"acaban" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "acabo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acabanaacban · acaabn · acabann · acabban · acabna · acavan · acbaan · accaban
  • acaboaacbo · acabbo · acaob · acavo · acbao · accabo · caabo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acaban" and "acabo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acaban" is a verb and "acabo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "acaban" vs "acabo" - which ranks higher?
"acabo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,465 in our Spanish list, against #3,892 for "acaban". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acaban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acabo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #313,829 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acaban" and "acabo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acaban vs acabase". 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 #313,829 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