pasarvspasasTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#381
“pasar” frequency rank
#5,416
“pasas” frequency rank
5797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasar pasas
Definition Llevar de un lugar a otro. Forma del femenino plural de paso.

Where the eye mixes pasar and pasas

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

5 ch
pasar
5 ch
pasas

Visual trap between pasar and pasas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pasar is [paˈsaɾ] while pasas is [ˈpasas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “pasar” becomes s in “pasas”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasar is recorded at frequency rank #381, classified as averb, pronounced [paˈsaɾ]. pasas is at rank #5,416, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈpasas].

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 5797, this pair ranks #312,628 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pasar vs pasas

Shared letters: aps. Private to "pasar": r. Private to "pasas": -.

"pasar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pasas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasarapsar · paasr · pasarr · pasra · passar · ppasar · psaar
  • pasasapsas · paass · pasass · passas · ppasas · psaas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pasar" and "pasas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pasar" is a verb and "pasas" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pasar" vs "pasas" - which ranks higher?
"pasar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #381 in our Spanish list, against #5,416 for "pasas". 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 "pasar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #312,628 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasar" and "pasas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasas vs postas". 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 #312,628 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