acompañarvsacompañaronWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,094
“acompañar” frequency rank
#17,326
“acompañaron” frequency rank
24420
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acompañar acompañaron
Definition Hacer o dar compañía. Estar o ir junto a otro u otros. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de acompañar.

Where the eye mixes acompañar and acompañaron

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. acompañar runs 9 letters (VCVCCVCVC) against acompañaron's 11 (VCVCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
acompañar
11 ch
acompañaron

Visual trap between acompañar and acompañaron

A purely visual mix-up. acompañar ([akõmpaˈɲaɾ]) 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 differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “acompañar” sits inside “acompañaron”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24420, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acompañar is recorded at frequency rank #7,094, classified as averb, pronounced [akõmpaˈɲaɾ]. 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 24420, this pair ranks #241,253 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acompañar vs acompañaron

Shared letters: acmoprñ. Private to "acompañar": -. Private to "acompañaron": n.

"acompañar" · 9 letters · shape VCVCCVCVC  ·  "acompañaron" · 11 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acompañar" for "acompañaron" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([akõmpaˈɲaɾ] versus [akõmpaˈɲaɾõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "acompañar" vs "acompañaron" - which ranks higher?
"acompañar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,094 in our Spanish list, against #17,326 for "acompañaron". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acompañar" 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 #241,253 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acompañar" and "acompañaron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acompañarán vs acompañaron". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #241,253 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