acabovsactoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,465
“acabo” frequency rank
#1,077
“acto” frequency rank
2542
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acabo acto
Definition Acabamiento o fin. Consecuencia real o potencial de realizar, de llevar a cabo algo.

Where the eye mixes acabo and acto

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

5 ch
acabo
4 ch
acto

Look-alike desk: acabo vs acto

A purely visual mix-up. acabo ([aˈkaβ̞o]) and acto ([ˈakt̪o]) 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 2542, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acabo is recorded at frequency rank #1,465, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈkaβ̞o]. acto is at rank #1,077, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈakt̪o].

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 2542, this pair ranks #320,109 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acabo vs acto

Shared letters: aco. Private to "acabo": b. Private to "acto": t.

"acabo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "acto" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acaboaacbo · acabbo · acaob · acavo · acbao · accabo · caabo
  • actoaccto · acot · actto · atco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acabo" for "acto" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈkaβ̞o] versus [ˈakt̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "acabo" or "acto" show up more?
"acto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,077 in our Spanish list, against #1,465 for "acabo". 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 "acabo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #320,109 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acabo" and "acto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acto vs anta". 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 #320,109 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