pastsvsPTSConfusable pair

Quick tell: pasts is a noun, PTS is a phrase, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pasts” is a noun and “PTS” is a phrase - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,990
“pasts” frequency rank
#15,683
“PTS” frequency rank
60673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasts PTS
Definition plural of past Initialism of pay to surf: a business model where users are paid for viewing advertisements while browsing the World Wide Web.

Letter map: pasts vs PTS

Shared letters muted; letters that set pasts and PTS apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
pasts
3 ch
PTS

Role in the sentence - pasts and PTS

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pasts is anoun and PTSaphrase. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasts is recorded at frequency rank #44,990, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːsts/. PTS is at rank #15,683, tagged as aphrase.

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 60673, this pair ranks #98,809 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pasts vs PTS

Shared letters: pst. Private to "pasts": a. Private to "PTS": -.

"pasts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "PTS" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pastsapsts · passts · pastss · pastts · ppasts · psats

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pasts" and "PTS" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pasts" is a noun and "PTS" a phrase, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pasts" vs "PTS" - which ranks higher?
"PTS" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,683 in our English list, against #44,990 for "pasts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "pasts" vs "PTS" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pasts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "PTS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,809 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasts" and "PTS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Palos vs pasts". 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 #98,809 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list