actavsactúanTell them apart

Quick tell: acta is a noun, actúan is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“acta” is a noun and “actúan” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,673
“acta” frequency rank
#7,506
“actúan” frequency rank
12179
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acta actúan
Definition Documento formal que testifica por escrito lo ocurrido, determinado, tratado o pactado en una junta. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de actuar.

Where the eye mixes acta and actúan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
acta
6 ch
actúan

Look-alike desk: acta vs actúan

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acta is [ˈakt̪a] while actúan is [akˈt̪uãn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12179, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acta is recorded at frequency rank #4,673, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈakt̪a]. actúan is at rank #7,506, tagged as averb, pronounced [akˈt̪uãn].

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 12179, this pair ranks #292,458 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acta vs actúan

Shared letters: act. Private to "acta": -. Private to "actúan": .

"acta" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "actúan" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • actaacat · accta · actta · atca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acta" for "actúan" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acta" is a noun and "actúan" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "acta" or "actúan" show up more?
"acta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,673 in our Spanish list, against #7,506 for "actúan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "acta" and "actúan" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "actúan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #292,458 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acta" and "actúan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acta vs anta". 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 #292,458 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