pagarávspegarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,283
“pagará” frequency rank
#6,442
“pegar” frequency rank
17725
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pagará pegar
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de pagar o de pagarse. Hacer que una cosa quede adherida a otra.

Where the eye mixes pagará and pegar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pagará runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against pegar's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pagará
5 ch
pegar

Why the eye confuses pagará with pegar

A purely visual mix-up. pagará ([paɣ̞aˈɾa]) and pegar ([peˈɣ̞aɾ]) 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 17725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pagará is recorded at frequency rank #11,283, classified as averb, pronounced [paɣ̞aˈɾa]. pegar is at rank #6,442, tagged as averb, pronounced [peˈɣ̞aɾ].

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 17725, this pair ranks #270,961 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pagará vs pegar

Shared letters: agpr. Private to "pagará": á. Private to "pegar": e.

"pagará" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pegar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pegar ← epgar · peagr · pegarr · peggar · pegra · pgear · ppegar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pagará" for "pegar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([paɣ̞aˈɾa] versus [peˈɣ̞aɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pagará" vs "pegar" - which ranks higher?
"pegar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,442 in our Spanish list, against #11,283 for "pagará". 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 "pagará" and "pegar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pagará" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pegar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,961 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pagará" and "pegar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paganas vs pagará". 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 #270,961 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