pasadovspecadoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#226
“pasado” frequency rank
#4,446
“pecado” frequency rank
4672
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasado pecado
Definition Temporada antes del presente. Trasgresión voluntaria de los mandamientos religiosos o divinos; infracción moral.

Where the eye mixes pasado and pecado

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

6 ch
pasado
6 ch
pecado

Visual trap between pasado and pecado

A purely visual mix-up. pasado ([paˈsað̞o]) and pecado ([peˈkað̞o]) 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 4672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasado is recorded at frequency rank #226, classified as anoun, pronounced [paˈsað̞o]. pecado is at rank #4,446, tagged as anoun, pronounced [peˈkað̞o].

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 4672, this pair ranks #315,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pasado vs pecado

Shared letters: adop. Private to "pasado": s. Private to "pecado": ce.

"pasado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pecado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasadoapsado · paasdo · pasaddo · pasaod · pasdao · passado · ppasado · psaado
  • pecadoepcado · pceado · peacdo · pecaddo · pecaod · peccado · pecdao · ppecado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pasado" for "pecado" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([paˈsað̞o] versus [peˈkað̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pasado" vs "pecado" - which ranks higher?
"pasado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #226 in our Spanish list, against #4,446 for "pecado". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pasado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pecado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasado" and "pecado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecado vs plegado". 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 #315,526 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