Which to use
“park” is a noun and “pays” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #717
- “park” frequency rank
- #4,622
- “pays” frequency rank
- 5339
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | park | pays |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An area of land set aside for environment preservation or recreation. | third-person singular simple present indicative of pay |
Where the eye mixes park and pays
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: park is /pɑɹk/ while pays is /peɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
park is recorded at frequency rank #717, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑɹk/. pays is at rank #4,622, tagged as averb, pronounced /peɪz/.
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 5339, this pair ranks #515,706 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of park vs pays
Shared letters: ap. Private to "park": kr. Private to "pays": sy.
"park" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC