pasmo vs pato, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“pasmo” and “pato” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,145
“pasmo” frequency rank: #6,330
“pato” frequency rank: 48475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pasmo	pato
Definition	espantado	empatado

Where the eye mixes pasmo and pato

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

5 ch

pasmo

4 ch

pato

Visual trap between pasmo and pato

A purely visual mix-up. pasmo (/ˈpaʒ.mu/) and pato (/ˈpa.tʊ/) 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 48475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasmo is recorded at frequency rank #42,145, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpaʒ.mu/. pato is at rank #6,330, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpa.tʊ/.

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 48475, this pair ranks #16,684 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pasmo vs pato

Shared letters: aop. Private to "pasmo": ms. Private to "pato": t.

"pasmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

pasmo ← apsmo · pamso · pasmmo · pasom · passmo · ppasmo · psamo
pato ← apto · paot · patto · ppato · ptao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pasmo" and "pato" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ˈpaʒ.mu/ versus /ˈpa.tʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pasmo" or "pato" show up more?

"pato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,330 in our Portuguese list, against #42,145 for "pasmo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pasmo" and "pato" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "pasmo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "pato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #16,684 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"pasmo" and "pato" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasmo vs pomo". 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 #16,684 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.