Which to use
“passar” and “pastar” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #380
- “passar” frequency rank
- #48,580
- “pastar” frequency rank
- 48960
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passar | pastar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | percorrer, atravessar | comer a erva de |
Where the eye mixes passar and pastar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between passar and pastar
A purely visual mix-up. passar (/pɐ.ˈsaɾ/) and pastar (/pɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/) 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 a single letter - s in “passar” becomes t in “pastar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48960, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passar is recorded at frequency rank #380, classified as averb, pronounced /pɐ.ˈsaɾ/. pastar is at rank #48,580, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/.
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 48960, this pair ranks #16,147 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of passar vs pastar
Shared letters: aprs. Private to "passar": -. Private to "pastar": t.
"passar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pastar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passar" and "pastar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "passar" or "pastar"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "passar" and "pastar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "passar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pastar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,147 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passar" and "pastar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pastar vs pasteur". 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 #16,147 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.