Which to use
“past” and “pit” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,284
- “past” frequency rank
- #25,076
- “pit” frequency rank
- 53360
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | past | pit |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ancien. | Parfait, excellent. |
Where the eye mixes past and pit
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between past and pit
A purely visual mix-up. past (\past\) and pit (\pit\) 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 53360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
past is recorded at frequency rank #28,284, classified as anadj, pronounced \past\. pit is at rank #25,076, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pit\.
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 53360, this pair ranks #141,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of past vs pit
Shared letters: pt. Private to "past": as. Private to "pit": i.
"past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pit" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- past ← apst · passt · pastt · pats · ppast · psat
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "past" and "pit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "past" or "pit"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "past" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #141,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "past" and "pit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "past vs peso". 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 #141,246 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.