adelantaronvsadelantarseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,900
“adelantaron” frequency rank
#34,863
“adelantarse” frequency rank
71763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adelantaron adelantarse
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de adelantar o de adelantarse. Ganar la delantera a alguno andando o corriendo, dejarle atrás.

Where the eye mixes adelantaron and adelantarse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. adelantaron (VCVCVCCVCVC) and adelantarse (VCVCVCCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

11 ch
adelantaron
11 ch
adelantarse

Why the eye confuses adelantaron with adelantarse

A purely visual mix-up. adelantaron ([að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾõn]) and adelantarse ([að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾse]) 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 71763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adelantaron is recorded at frequency rank #36,900, classified as averb, pronounced [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾõn]. adelantarse is at rank #34,863, tagged as averb, pronounced [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾse].

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 71763, this pair ranks #26,802 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of adelantaron vs adelantarse

Shared letters: adelnrt. Private to "adelantaron": o. Private to "adelantarse": s.

"adelantaron" · 11 letters · shape VCVCVCCVCVC  ·  "adelantarse" · 11 letters · shape VCVCVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adelantaronaddelantaron · adealntaron · adelanatron · adelanntaron · adelantaorn · adelantarno · adelantaronn · adelantarron
  • adelantarseaddelantarse · adealntarse · adelanatrse · adelanntarse · adelantarce · adelantares · adelantarrse · adelantarsse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "adelantaron" for "adelantarse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾõn] versus [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪aɾse]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "adelantaron" or "adelantarse"?
"adelantarse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,863 in our Spanish list, against #36,900 for "adelantaron". 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 "adelantaron" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adelantarse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,802 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adelantaron" and "adelantarse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adelantados vs adelantaron". 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 #26,802 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