pasasvspasasteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#5,416
“pasas” frequency rank
#12,891
“pasaste” frequency rank
18307
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasas pasaste
Definition Forma del femenino plural de paso. Segunda persona del singular (tú, vos) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de pasar.

Where the eye mixes pasas and pasaste

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

5 ch
pasas
7 ch
pasaste

Visual trap between pasas and pasaste

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pasas is [ˈpasas] while pasaste is [paˈsast̪e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “pasas” sits inside “pasaste”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18307, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasas is recorded at frequency rank #5,416, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈpasas]. pasaste is at rank #12,891, tagged as averb, pronounced [paˈsast̪e].

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 18307, this pair ranks #268,452 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pasas vs pasaste

Shared letters: aps. Private to "pasas": -. Private to "pasaste": et.

"pasas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pasaste" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasasapsas · paass · pasass · passas · ppasas · psaas
  • pasasteapsaste · paasste · pasaset · pasasste · pasastte · pasatse · passaste · passate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pasas" for "pasaste" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pasas" is an adjective and "pasaste" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pasas" or "pasaste" show up more?
"pasas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,416 in our Spanish list, against #12,891 for "pasaste". 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 "pasas" and "pasaste" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pasas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasaste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #268,452 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasas" and "pasaste" 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 #268,452 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