paidvsparsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“paid” and “pars” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,122
“paid” frequency rank
#47,639
“pars” frequency rank
91761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paid pars
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs pay 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs parsen

Letter map: paid vs pars

Shared letters muted; letters that set paid and pars apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. paid (CVVC) and pars (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
paid
4 ch
pars

Spelling & dictionary notes on paid vs pars

paid and pars are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paid is recorded at frequency rank #44,122, classified as averb, pronounced […]. pars is at rank #47,639, tagged as averb, pronounced [paʁs].

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 91761, this pair ranks #35,243 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of paid vs pars

Shared letters: ap. Private to "paid": di. Private to "pars": rs.

"paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "pars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paid ← apid · padi · paidd · ppaid
  • pars ← aprs · parrs · parss · pasr · ppars · pras

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paid" and "pars" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "paid" or "pars"?
"paid" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,122 in our German list, against #47,639 for "pars". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "paid" and "pars". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pars" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,243 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paid" and "pars" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pars vs PMS". 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 #35,243 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list