agarranvsaguardanTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,254
“agarran” frequency rank
#41,720
“aguardan” frequency rank
57974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agarran aguardan
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de agarrar o de agarrarse. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de aguardar o de aguardarse.

Where the eye mixes agarran and aguardan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. agarran runs 7 letters (VCVCCVC) against aguardan's 8 (VCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
agarran
8 ch
aguardan

Look-alike desk: agarran vs aguardan

A purely visual mix-up. agarran ([aˈɣ̞arãn]) and aguardan ([aˈɣ̞waɾð̞ãn]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agarran is recorded at frequency rank #16,254, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈɣ̞arãn]. aguardan is at rank #41,720, tagged as averb, pronounced [aˈɣ̞waɾð̞ãn].

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 57974, this pair ranks #68,280 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of agarran vs aguardan

Shared letters: agnr. Private to "agarran": -. Private to "aguardan": du.

"agarran" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "aguardan" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agarranaagrran · agaran · agararn · agarrann · agarrna · aggarran · agraran · gaarran
  • aguardanagaurdan · agguardan · aguadran · aguaradn · aguardann · aguarddan · aguardna · aguarrdan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agarran" for "aguardan" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈɣ̞arãn] versus [aˈɣ̞waɾð̞ãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "agarran" vs "aguardan" - which ranks higher?
"agarran" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,254 in our Spanish list, against #41,720 for "aguardan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agarran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aguardan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,280 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agarran" and "aguardan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aguardan vs aguardando". 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 #68,280 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