aceravsacercasWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,997
“acera” frequency rank
#30,728
“acercas” frequency rank
45725
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acera acercas
Definition Orilla de la calle por la que se efectúa el tránsito peatonal. Segunda persona del singular (tú) del presente de indicativo de acercar o de acercarse.

Where the eye mixes acera and acercas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. acera runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against acercas's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
acera
7 ch
acercas

Look-alike desk: acera vs acercas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acera is [aˈseɾa] while acercas is [aˈseɾkas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acera is recorded at frequency rank #14,997, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈseɾa]. acercas is at rank #30,728, tagged as averb, pronounced [aˈseɾkas].

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 45725, this pair ranks #129,779 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acera vs acercas

Shared letters: acer. Private to "acera": -. Private to "acercas": s.

"acera" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "acercas" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aceraaccera · acear · acerra · acrea · aecra · asera · caera
  • acercasaccercas · acecras · aceracs · acercass · acerccas · acercsa · acerrcas · acrecas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acera" for "acercas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acera" is a noun and "acercas" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "acera" or "acercas" show up more?
"acera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,997 in our Spanish list, against #30,728 for "acercas". 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 "acera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acercas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,779 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acera" and "acercas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acercará vs acercas". 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 #129,779 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