acompañabanvsacompañadasWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,212
“acompañaban” frequency rank
#16,494
“acompañadas” frequency rank
44706
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acompañaban acompañadas
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de acompañar. Forma del femenino plural de acompañado, adjetivo y también participio de acompañar o de acompañarse.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set acompañaban and acompañadas apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

11 ch
acompañaban
11 ch
acompañadas

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acompañaban is [akõmpaˈɲaβ̞ãn] while acompañadas is [akõmpaˈɲað̞as]. 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 (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acompañaban is recorded at frequency rank #28,212, classified as averb, pronounced [akõmpaˈɲaβ̞ãn]. acompañadas is at rank #16,494, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [akõmpaˈɲað̞as].

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 44706, this pair ranks #135,564 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acompañaban vs acompañadas

Shared letters: acmopñ. Private to "acompañaban": bn. Private to "acompañadas": ds.

"acompañaban" · 11 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCVC  ·  "acompañadas" · 11 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCVC

Frequency comparison

acompañaban#28,212
acompañadas#16,494

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acompañaban" and "acompañadas" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acompañaban" is a verb and "acompañadas" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "acompañaban" or "acompañadas"?
"acompañadas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,494 in our Spanish list, against #28,212 for "acompañaban". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering acompañaban vs acompañadas

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “acompañaban”; for a participle, it's “acompañadas”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “acompañaban” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list