paguevspeguéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,608
“pague” frequency rank
#24,995
“pegué” frequency rank
32603
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pague pegué
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de pagar o de pagarse. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de pegar.

Where the eye mixes pague and pegué

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

5 ch
pague
5 ch
pegué

Why the eye confuses pague with pegué

A purely visual mix-up. pague ([ˈpaɣ̞e]) and pegué ([peˈɣ̞e]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pague is recorded at frequency rank #7,608, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpaɣ̞e]. pegué is at rank #24,995, tagged as averb, pronounced [peˈɣ̞e].

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 32603, this pair ranks #201,124 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pague vs pegué

Shared letters: egpu. Private to "pague": a. Private to "pegué": é.

"pague" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "pegué" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pagueapgue · pageu · paggue · pauge · pgaue · ppague

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pague" and "pegué" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaɣ̞e] versus [peˈɣ̞e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pague" vs "pegué" - which ranks higher?
"pague" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,608 in our Spanish list, against #24,995 for "pegué". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pague" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pegué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,124 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pague" and "pegué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pegué vs pence". 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 #201,124 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