pace vs padre, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#35,175
“pace” frequency rank: #363
“padre” frequency rank: 35538
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pace	padre
Definition	Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pacer.	Macho, animal o humano, que ha engendrado o adoptado hijos.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pace and padre apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

pace

5 ch

padre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pace is [ˈpase] while padre is [ˈpað̞ɾe]. 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 35538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pace is recorded at frequency rank #35,175, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpase]. padre is at rank #363, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpað̞ɾe].

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 35538, this pair ranks #185,535 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pace vs padre

Shared letters: aep. Private to "pace": c. Private to "padre": dr.

"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "padre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

pace ← apce · pacce · paec · pcae · ppace
padre ← apdre · paddre · pader · padrre · parde · pdare · ppadre

Frequency comparison

pace#35,175

padre#363

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pace" and "padre" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pace" is a verb and "padre" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "pace" or "padre"?

"padre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #363 in our Spanish list, against #35,175 for "pace". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering pace vs padre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “pace”; for a noun, it's “padre”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pace” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable