parsvspasaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,903
“pars” frequency rank
#270
“pasa” frequency rank
45173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pars pasa
Definition Una de las porciones (iguales o no) en las que se pueda dividir una cosa (material o no), parte, porción, trozo, pedazo, pieza, etc. Uva seca, deshidratada parcialmente, sea de forma natural o por acción humana al cocerla al calor.

Where the eye mixes pars and pasa

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

4 ch
pars
4 ch
pasa

Look-alike desk: pars vs pasa

A purely visual mix-up. pars (/ˈpars/) and pasa ([ˈpasa]) 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 45173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pars is recorded at frequency rank #44,903, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpars/. pasa is at rank #270, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpasa].

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 45173, this pair ranks #132,966 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pars vs pasa

Shared letters: aps. Private to "pars": r. Private to "pasa": -.

"pars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pasa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parsaprs · parrs · parss · pasr · ppars · pras
  • pasaapsa · paas · passa · ppasa · psaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pars" for "pasa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpars/ versus [ˈpasa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pars" vs "pasa" - which ranks higher?
"pasa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #270 in our Spanish list, against #44,903 for "pars". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #132,966 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pars" and "pasa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pars vs PRC". 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 #132,966 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