pasovspisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#343
“paso” frequency rank
#19,527
“pis” frequency rank
19870
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paso pis
Definition Cada uno de los movimientos de avance de las piernas al caminar. Secreción líquida de los riñones, conducida a la vejiga por los uréteres y expelida por la uretra.

Where the eye mixes paso and pis

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

4 ch
paso
3 ch
pis

Why the eye confuses paso with pis

A purely visual mix-up. paso ([ˈpaso]) and pis ([ˈpis]) 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 19870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paso is recorded at frequency rank #343, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaso]. pis is at rank #19,527, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpis].

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 19870, this pair ranks #261,855 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of paso vs pis

Shared letters: ps. Private to "paso": ao. Private to "pis": i.

"paso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasoapso · paos · passo · ppaso · psao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "paso" for "pis" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaso] versus [ˈpis]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "paso" vs "pis" - which ranks higher?
"paso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #343 in our Spanish list, against #19,527 for "pis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #261,855 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paso" and "pis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pis 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 #261,855 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