pasevspatTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,147
“pase” frequency rank
#14,422
“pat” frequency rank
15569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pase pat
Definition Acción o efecto de pasar (en sus diferentes acepciones). Cazón.

Where the eye mixes pase and pat

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pase
3 ch
pat

Look-alike desk: pase vs pat

A purely visual mix-up. pase ([ˈpase]) and pat (/pat/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pase is recorded at frequency rank #1,147, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpase]. pat is at rank #14,422, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pat/.

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 15569, this pair ranks #279,620 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pase vs pat

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pase": es. Private to "pat": t.

"pase" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pat" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paseapse · paes · passe · ppase · psae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pase" for "pat" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpase] versus /pat/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pase" or "pat"?
"pase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,147 in our Spanish list, against #14,422 for "pat". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pase" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,620 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pase" and "pat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pat vs PRC". 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 #279,620 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