pasabanvspasaráTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,014
“pasaban” frequency rank
#4,274
“pasará” frequency rank
13288
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasaban pasará
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de pasar. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del futuro de indicativo de pasar.

Where the eye mixes pasaban and pasará

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

7 ch
pasaban
6 ch
pasará

Why the eye confuses pasaban with pasará

A purely visual mix-up. pasaban ([paˈsaβ̞ãn]) and pasará ([pasaˈɾa]) 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 13288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasaban is recorded at frequency rank #9,014, classified as averb, pronounced [paˈsaβ̞ãn]. pasará is at rank #4,274, tagged as averb, pronounced [pasaˈɾa].

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 13288, this pair ranks #288,413 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pasaban vs pasará

Shared letters: aps. Private to "pasaban": bn. Private to "pasará": .

"pasaban" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "pasará" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasabanapsaban · paasban · pasaabn · pasabann · pasabban · pasabna · pasavan · pasbaan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pasaban" for "pasará" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([paˈsaβ̞ãn] versus [pasaˈɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pasaban" or "pasará"?
"pasará" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,274 in our Spanish list, against #9,014 for "pasaban". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "pasaban" and "pasará" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pasaban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasará" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,413 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasaban" and "pasará" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasaban vs pegaban". 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 #288,413 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