Which to use
“past” and “pat” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #437
- “past” frequency rank
- #4,785
- “pat” frequency rank
- 5222
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | past | pat |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future. | The sound of a light slap or tap with a soft flat object, especially of a footstep. |
Where the eye mixes past and pat
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. past (/pɑːst/) and pat (/pæt/) 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 5222, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
past is recorded at frequency rank #437, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːst/. pat is at rank #4,785, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pæt/.
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 5222, this pair ranks #516,134 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of past vs pat
Shared letters: apt. Private to "past": s. Private to "pat": -.
"past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pat" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- past ← apst · passt · pastt · ppast · psat