pasenvspasoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,817
“pasen” frequency rank
#343
“paso” frequency rank
5160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasen paso
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de pasar. Cada uno de los movimientos de avance de las piernas al caminar.

Where the eye mixes pasen and paso

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

5 ch
pasen
4 ch
paso

Why the eye confuses pasen with paso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pasen is [ˈpasẽn] while paso is [ˈpaso]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasen is recorded at frequency rank #4,817, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpasẽn]. paso is at rank #343, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaso].

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 5160, this pair ranks #314,339 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pasen vs paso

Shared letters: aps. Private to "pasen": en. Private to "paso": o.

"pasen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "paso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasenapsen · pacen · paesn · pasenn · pasne · passen · ppasen · psaen
  • pasoapso · paos · passo · ppaso · psao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pasen" and "paso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pasen" is a verb and "paso" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pasen" vs "paso" - which ranks higher?
"paso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #343 in our Spanish list, against #4,817 for "pasen". 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 "pasen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #314,339 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasen" and "paso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasen vs pateo". 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 #314,339 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