parevspaseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,289
“pare” frequency rank
#1,147
“pase” frequency rank
9436
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pare pase
Definition Acción o efecto de parar. Acción o efecto de pasar (en sus diferentes acepciones).

Where the eye mixes pare and pase

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

4 ch
pare
4 ch
pase

Why the eye confuses pare with pase

A purely visual mix-up. pare ([ˈpaɾe]) and pase ([ˈpase]) 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 a single letter - r in “pare” becomes s in “pase”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pare is recorded at frequency rank #8,289, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaɾe]. pase is at rank #1,147, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpase].

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 9436, this pair ranks #301,935 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pare vs pase

Shared letters: aep. Private to "pare": r. Private to "pase": s.

"pare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pase" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pareapre · paer · parre · ppare · prae
  • paseapse · paes · passe · ppase · psae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pare" and "pase" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaɾe] versus [ˈpase]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pare" vs "pase" - which ranks higher?
"pase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,147 in our Spanish list, against #8,289 for "pare". 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 "pare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #301,935 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pare" and "pase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pare vs prey". 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 #301,935 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