adquieranvsadquierenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,394
“adquieran” frequency rank
#17,859
“adquieren” frequency rank
51253
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adquieran adquieren
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de adquirir. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de adquirir.

Where the eye mixes adquieran and adquieren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. adquieran and adquieren follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
adquieran
9 ch
adquieren

Why the eye confuses adquieran with adquieren

A purely visual mix-up. adquieran ([að̞ˈkjeɾãn]) and adquieren ([að̞ˈkjeɾẽn]) 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 a single letter - a in “adquieran” becomes e in “adquieren”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adquieran is recorded at frequency rank #33,394, classified as averb, pronounced [að̞ˈkjeɾãn]. adquieren is at rank #17,859, tagged as averb, pronounced [að̞ˈkjeɾẽn].

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 51253, this pair ranks #98,828 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of adquieran vs adquieren

Shared letters: adeinqru. Private to "adquieran": -. Private to "adquieren": -.

"adquieran" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVVCVC  ·  "adquieren" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adquieran ← addquieran · adqiueran · adqquieran · adqueiran · adquiearn · adquierann · adquierna · adquierran
  • adquieren ← addquieren · adqiueren · adqquieren · adqueiren · adquieern · adquierenn · adquierne · adquierren

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "adquieran" and "adquieren" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([að̞ˈkjeɾãn] versus [að̞ˈkjeɾẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "adquieran" or "adquieren" show up more?
"adquieren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,859 in our Spanish list, against #33,394 for "adquieran". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "adquieran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adquieren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,828 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adquieran" and "adquieren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adquieran vs alquitrán". 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 #98,828 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