pasevspateoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pase is a noun, pateo is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pase” is a noun and “pateo” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,147
“pase” frequency rank
#46,713
“pateo” frequency rank
47860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pase pateo
Definition Acción o efecto de pasar (en sus diferentes acepciones). Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de patear.

Where the eye mixes pase and pateo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pase
5 ch
pateo

Look-alike desk: pase vs pateo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pase is [ˈpase] while pateo is [paˈt̪eo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47860, 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]. pateo is at rank #46,713, tagged as averb, pronounced [paˈt̪eo].

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 47860, this pair ranks #117,700 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pase vs pateo

Shared letters: aep. Private to "pase": s. Private to "pateo": ot.

"pase" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pateo" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paseapse · paes · passe · ppase · psae
  • pateoapteo · paeto · patoe · patteo · ppateo · ptaeo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pase" and "pateo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pase" is a noun and "pateo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pase" or "pateo" show up more?
"pase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,147 in our Spanish list, against #46,713 for "pateo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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 "pateo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #117,700 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pase" and "pateo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pateo vs platero". 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 #117,700 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