acarrearvsagarrarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,006
“acarrear” frequency rank
#7,508
“agarrar” frequency rank
36514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acarrear agarrar
Definition Llevar o transportar en carro o, por extensión, de cualquier otra manera. Asir algo con la mano o los miembros.

Where the eye mixes acarrear and agarrar

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

8 ch
acarrear
7 ch
agarrar

Visual trap between acarrear and agarrar

A purely visual mix-up. acarrear ([akareˈaɾ]) and agarrar ([aɣ̞aˈraɾ]) 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 36514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acarrear is recorded at frequency rank #29,006, classified as averb, pronounced [akareˈaɾ]. agarrar is at rank #7,508, tagged as averb, pronounced [aɣ̞aˈraɾ].

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 36514, this pair ranks #180,239 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acarrear vs agarrar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "acarrear": ce. Private to "agarrar": g.

"acarrear" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVVC  ·  "agarrar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acarrearaacrrear · acarear · acarerar · acarraer · acarrearr · acarrera · accarrear · acrarear
  • agarraraagrrar · agararr · agarrarr · agarrra · aggarrar · agrarar · gaarrar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acarrear" for "agarrar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([akareˈaɾ] versus [aɣ̞aˈraɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "acarrear" or "agarrar" show up more?
"agarrar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,508 in our Spanish list, against #29,006 for "acarrear". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acarrear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agarrar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180,239 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acarrear" and "agarrar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acarrear vs acarreo". 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 #180,239 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