parsvspasWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pars is a verb, pas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pars” is a verb and “pas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,639
“pars” frequency rank
#10,718
“pas” frequency rank
58357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pars pas
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs parsen Schritt, Tritt

Where the eye mixes pars and pas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pars
3 ch
pas

Why the eye confuses pars with pas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pars is [paʁs] while pas is [pa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pars is recorded at frequency rank #47,639, classified as averb, pronounced [paʁs]. pas is at rank #10,718, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pa].

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 58357, this pair ranks #865,922 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pars vs pas

Shared letters: aps. Private to "pars": r. Private to "pas": -.

"pars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parsaprs · parrs · parss · pasr · ppars · pras

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pars" and "pas" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pars" is a verb and "pas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "pars" or "pas" show up more?
"pas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,718 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.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #865,922 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pars" and "pas" 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 #865,922 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