paísesvspassWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: países is a noun, pass is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“países” is a noun and “pass” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#354
“países” frequency rank
#20,155
“pass” frequency rank
20509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature países pass
Definition Forma del plural de país. Pasar.

Where the eye mixes países and pass

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
países
4 ch
pass

Visual trap between países and pass

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: países is [paˈises] while pass is /pɑːs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

países is recorded at frequency rank #354, classified as anoun, pronounced [paˈises]. pass is at rank #20,155, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɑːs/.

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 20509, this pair ranks #259,028 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of países vs pass

Shared letters: aps. Private to "países": . Private to "pass": -.

"países" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "pass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passapss · ppass · psas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "países" and "pass" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "países" is a noun and "pass" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "países" or "pass" show up more?
"países" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #354 in our Spanish list, against #20,155 for "pass". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "países" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pass" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #259,028 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "países" and "pass" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pa'l vs pass". 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 #259,028 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