pasatevspastTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#38,865
“pasate” frequency rank
#38,289
“past” frequency rank
77154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasate past
Definition Segunda persona del singular (vos) del imperativo afirmativo de pasarse (con el pronombre «te» enclítico). Pasado, que ocurrió en el pasado.

Where the eye mixes pasate and past

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pasate runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against past's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pasate
4 ch
past

Look-alike desk: pasate vs past

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pasate is [paˈsat̪e] while past is /pɑːst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasate is recorded at frequency rank #38,865, classified as averb, pronounced [paˈsat̪e]. past is at rank #38,289, tagged as anadj, pronounced /pɑːst/.

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 77154, this pair ranks #16,482 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pasate vs past

Shared letters: apst. Private to "pasate": e. Private to "past": -.

"pasate" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasate ← apsate · paaste · pasaet · pasatte · pastae · ppasate · psaate
  • past ← apst · passt · pastt · pats · ppast · psat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pasate" for "past" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pasate" is a verb and "past" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pasate" or "past"?
"past" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,289 in our Spanish list, against #38,865 for "pasate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pasate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "past" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,482 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasate" and "past" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pa'l vs past". 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 #16,482 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