pagarlavspegarleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pagarla is a phrase, pegarle is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pagarla” is a phrase and “pegarle” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,753
“pagarla” frequency rank
#14,199
“pegarle” frequency rank
47952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pagarla pegarle
Definition Sufrir el culpable su condigno castigo o la venganza de que se hizo más o menos merecedor. Disparar al arco.

Where the eye mixes pagarla and pegarle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pagarla and pegarle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
pagarla
7 ch
pegarle

Visual trap between pagarla and pegarle

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pagarla is [paˈɣ̞aɾla] while pegarle is [peˈɣ̞aɾle]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (phrase vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pagarla is recorded at frequency rank #33,753, classified as aphrase, pronounced [paˈɣ̞aɾla]. pegarle is at rank #14,199, tagged as averb, pronounced [peˈɣ̞aɾle].

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 47952, this pair ranks #117,162 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pagarla vs pegarle

Shared letters: aglpr. Private to "pagarla": -. Private to "pegarle": e.

"pagarla" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "pegarle" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pagarla ← apgarla · paagrla · pagalra · pagaral · pagarlla · pagarrla · paggarla · pagrala
  • pegarle ← epgarle · peagrle · pegalre · pegarel · pegarlle · pegarrle · peggarle · pegrale

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pagarla" and "pegarle" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pagarla" is a phrase and "pegarle" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pagarla" or "pegarle" show up more?
"pegarle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,199 in our Spanish list, against #33,753 for "pagarla". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pagarla" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pegarle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #117,162 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pagarla" and "pegarle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pagana vs pagarla". 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 #117,162 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