pacevspasenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pace” and “pasen” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,175
“pace” frequency rank
#4,817
“pasen” frequency rank
39992
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pace pasen
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pacer. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de pasar.

Where the eye mixes pace and pasen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pace
5 ch
pasen

Look-alike desk: pace vs pasen

A purely visual mix-up. pace ([ˈpase]) and pasen ([ˈpasẽn]) 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 39992, 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]. pasen is at rank #4,817, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpasẽn].

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 39992, this pair ranks #161,504 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pace vs pasen

Shared letters: aep. Private to "pace": c. Private to "pasen": ns.

"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pasen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paceapce · pacce · paec · pcae · ppace
  • pasenapsen · pacen · paesn · pasenn · pasne · passen · ppasen · psaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pace" for "pasen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpase] versus [ˈpasẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pace" or "pasen" show up more?
"pasen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,817 in our Spanish list, against #35,175 for "pace". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pace" and "pasen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #161,504 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pace" and "pasen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pace vs PRC". 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 #161,504 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list