acercanvsacercarConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#9,565
“acercan” frequency rank
#14,999
“acercar” frequency rank
24564
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acercan acercar
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de acercar o de acercarse. Poner más cerca o menos lejos.

Where the eye mixes acercan and acercar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
acercan
7 ch
acercar

Visual trap between acercan and acercar

A purely visual mix-up. acercan ([aˈseɾkãn]) and acercar ([aseɾˈkaɾ]) 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 a single letter - n in “acercan” becomes r in “acercar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24564, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acercan is recorded at frequency rank #9,565, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈseɾkãn]. acercar is at rank #14,999, tagged as averb, pronounced [aseɾˈkaɾ].

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 24564, this pair ranks #240,558 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acercan vs acercar

Shared letters: acer. Private to "acercan": n. Private to "acercar": -.

"acercan" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "acercar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acercanaccercan · acecran · aceracn · acercann · acerccan · acercna · acerrcan · acrecan
  • acercaraccercar · acecrar · aceracr · acercarr · acerccar · acercra · acerrcar · acrecar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acercan" for "acercar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈseɾkãn] versus [aseɾˈkaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acercan" or "acercar"?
"acercan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,565 in our Spanish list, against #14,999 for "acercar". 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 "acercan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acercar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #240,558 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acercan" and "acercar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acercar vs acercará". 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 #240,558 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