paguenvspeguéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,337
“paguen” frequency rank
#24,995
“pegué” frequency rank
34332
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paguen pegué
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) 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 paguen and pegué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. paguen runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against pegué's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
paguen
5 ch
pegué

Why the eye confuses paguen with pegué

A purely visual mix-up. paguen ([ˈpaɣ̞ẽn]) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paguen is recorded at frequency rank #9,337, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpaɣ̞ẽn]. 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 34332, this pair ranks #192,035 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paguen vs pegué

Shared letters: egpu. Private to "paguen": an. Private to "pegué": é.

"paguen" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "pegué" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paguen ← apguen · pageun · pagguen · paguenn · pagune · paugen · pgauen · ppaguen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "paguen" for "pegué" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaɣ̞ẽn] versus [peˈɣ̞e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "paguen" vs "pegué" - which ranks higher?
"paguen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,337 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "paguen" 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 #192,035 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paguen" 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 #192,035 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