acercavsaveríaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: acerca is a adverb, avería is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“acerca” is an adverb and “avería” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#678
“acerca” frequency rank
#23,314
“avería” frequency rank
23992
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acerca avería
Definition Cerca de, próximo, adyacente. Establecimiento o lugar donde se crían aves o pájaros para el beneficio humano.

Where the eye mixes acerca and avería

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

6 ch
acerca
6 ch
avería

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acerca is [aˈseɾka] while avería is [aβ̞eˈɾia]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acerca is recorded at frequency rank #678, classified as anadv, pronounced [aˈseɾka]. avería is at rank #23,314, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aβ̞eˈɾia].

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 23992, this pair ranks #243,232 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acerca vs avería

Shared letters: aer. Private to "acerca": c. Private to "avería": .

"acerca" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "avería" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acercaaccerca · acecra · acerac · acercca · acerrca · acreca · aecrca · aserca

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acerca" and "avería" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acerca" is an adverb and "avería" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "acerca" or "avería"?
"acerca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #678 in our Spanish list, against #23,314 for "avería". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list