acompañabanvsacompañaronTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,212
“acompañaban” frequency rank
#17,326
“acompañaron” frequency rank
45538
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acompañaban acompañaron
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de acompañar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de acompañar.

Where the eye mixes acompañaban and acompañaron

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

11 ch
acompañaban
11 ch
acompañaron

Why the eye confuses acompañaban with acompañaron

A purely visual mix-up. acompañaban ([akõmpaˈɲaβ̞ãn]) and acompañaron ([akõmpaˈɲaɾõn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45538, 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]. acompañaron is at rank #17,326, tagged as averb, pronounced [akõmpaˈɲaɾõn].

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 45538, this pair ranks #130,897 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acompañaban vs acompañaron

Shared letters: acmnopñ. Private to "acompañaban": b. Private to "acompañaron": r.

"acompañaban" · 11 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCVC  ·  "acompañaron" · 11 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acompañaban" for "acompañaron" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([akõmpaˈɲaβ̞ãn] versus [akõmpaˈɲaɾõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acompañaban" or "acompañaron"?
"acompañaron" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,326 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acompañaban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acompañaron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,897 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acompañaban" and "acompañaron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acompañaban vs acompañarán". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #130,897 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