Which to use
“pain” and “pays” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,200
- “pain” frequency rank
- #42,064
- “pays” frequency rank
- 78264
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pain | pays |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pan. | País. |
Where the eye mixes pain and pays
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pain and pays follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: pain vs pays
A purely visual mix-up. pain ([pɛ̃]) and pays (/pɛi/) 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 78264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pain is recorded at frequency rank #36,200, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɛ̃]. pays is at rank #42,064, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɛi/.
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 78264, this pair ranks #14,710 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pain vs pays
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pain": in. Private to "pays": sy.
"pain" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "pays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pain" and "pays" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pain" vs "pays" - which ranks higher?
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 "pain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #14,710 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pain" and "pays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pa'l vs pays". 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 #14,710 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.