Which to use
“past” is a noun and “pos” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #437
- “past” frequency rank
- #11,268
- “pos” frequency rank
- 11705
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | past | pos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future. | Clipping of positive. |
Where the eye mixes past and pos
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: past is /pɑːst/ while pos is /pɒz/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
past is recorded at frequency rank #437, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːst/. pos is at rank #11,268, tagged as anadj, pronounced /pɒz/.
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 11705, this pair ranks #485,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of past vs pos
Shared letters: ps. Private to "past": at. Private to "pos": o.
"past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pos" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- past ← apst · passt · pastt · ppast · psat