pasanvspasanteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pasan is a verb, pasante is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pasan” is a verb and “pasante” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,692
“pasan” frequency rank
#31,916
“pasante” frequency rank
33608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasan pasante
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pasar. Que pasa.

Where the eye mixes pasan and pasante

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pasan
7 ch
pasante

Look-alike desk: pasan vs pasante

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pasan is [ˈpasãn] while pasante is [paˈsãn̪t̪e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “pasan” sits inside “pasante”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasan is recorded at frequency rank #1,692, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpasãn]. pasante is at rank #31,916, tagged as anadj, pronounced [paˈsãn̪t̪e].

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 33608, this pair ranks #195,882 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pasan vs pasante

Shared letters: anps. Private to "pasan": -. Private to "pasante": et.

"pasan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pasante" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasanapsan · paasn · pasann · pasna · passan · ppasan · psaan
  • pasanteapsante · paasnte · pasanet · pasannte · pasantte · pasatne · pasnate · passante

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pasan" and "pasante" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pasan" is a verb and "pasante" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pasan" vs "pasante" - which ranks higher?
"pasan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,692 in our Spanish list, against #31,916 for "pasante". 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 "pasan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #195,882 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasan" and "pasante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasante vs pedante". 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 #195,882 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