acompañabavsacompañadaTell them apart

Quick tell: acompañaba is a verb, acompañada is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“acompañaba” is a verb and “acompañada” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,019
“acompañaba” frequency rank
#6,856
“acompañada” frequency rank
25875
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acompañaba acompañada
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de acompañar. Forma del femenino de acompañado, adjetivo y también participio de acompañar o de acompañarse.

Where the eye mixes acompañaba and acompañada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. acompañaba and acompañada follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
acompañaba
10 ch
acompañada

Why the eye confuses acompañaba with acompañada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acompañaba is [akõmpaˈɲaβ̞a] while acompañada is [akõmpaˈɲað̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - b in “acompañaba” becomes d in “acompañada”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acompañaba is recorded at frequency rank #19,019, classified as averb, pronounced [akõmpaˈɲaβ̞a]. acompañada is at rank #6,856, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [akõmpaˈɲað̞a].

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 25875, this pair ranks #234,394 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acompañaba vs acompañada

Shared letters: acmopñ. Private to "acompañaba": b. Private to "acompañada": d.

"acompañaba" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCV  ·  "acompañada" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acompañaba" and "acompañada" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acompañaba" is a verb and "acompañada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "acompañaba" or "acompañada"?
"acompañada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,856 in our Spanish list, against #19,019 for "acompañaba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acompañaba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acompañada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #234,394 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acompañaba" and "acompañada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acompañaba vs acompañarán". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #234,394 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