compañar

Compañar is a Spanish verb meaning to accompany, to go with someone or something, providing company or presence. It can also mean to join or escort another person or to travel in company. The sense of pairing or matching is less common in everyday speech and in many varieties is replaced by acompañar or emparejar in the culinary or pairing contexts.

Etymology and related forms: compañar derives from the noun compañía (fellowship, company) and shares its semantic core with compañero/a (companion). The verb is regular in form, built with the -ar suffix as a standard transitive verb.

Usage: typically used with a direct object that denotes a person or entity, as in acompañar a alguien (to accompany someone) or acompañar algo con algo (to accompany something with something). In social or care contexts, it expresses physical presence, escort, or moral support. In some dialects or historical texts, it can also convey a sense of pairing or matching, similar to associating one thing with another, though more common terms for that sense are emparejar or parear.

Examples: “Quiero acompañar a mi amiga al médico.” (I want to accompany my friend to the doctor.) “El guía acompaña a los turistas durante la caminata.” (The guide accompanies the tourists during the hike.) “Este vino acompaña muy bien el plato.” (This wine accompanies the dish well; more standard phrasing in broader Spanish would use acompañar.)

Regional notes: acompañar is generally preferred in modern standard Spanish. compañar appears more often in certain dialects, older texts, or poetic/lrequent usage, where it retains a closely related but less common sense of accompaniment or pairing.