passadavspassarWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,340
“passada” frequency rank
#380
“passar” frequency rank
1720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passada passar
Definition ato de dar um passo percorrer, atravessar

Where the eye mixes passada and passar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
passada
6 ch
passar

Look-alike desk: passada vs passar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: passada is /pɐ.ˈsa.dɐ/ while passar is /pɐ.ˈsaɾ/. 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 1720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passada is recorded at frequency rank #1,340, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɐ.ˈsa.dɐ/. passar is at rank #380, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɐ.ˈsaɾ/.

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 1720, this pair ranks #73,794 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of passada vs passar

Shared letters: aps. Private to "passada": d. Private to "passar": r.

"passada" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "passar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passadaapssada · pasada · pasasda · passaad · passadda · passdaa · ppassada · psasada
  • passarapssar · pasar · pasasr · passarr · passra · ppassar · psasar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "passada" and "passar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "passada" is a noun and "passar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "passada" or "passar" show up more?
"passar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #380 in our Portuguese list, against #1,340 for "passada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "passada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "passar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,794 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passada" and "passar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passar vs pastar". 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 #73,794 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list