Which to use
“passos” is an adjective and “pessoa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,338
- “passos” frequency rank
- #235
- “pessoa” frequency rank
- 2573
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passos | pessoa |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural de passo | indivíduo consciente de si e distinto dos demais |
Where the eye mixes passos and pessoa
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between passos and pessoa
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: passos is /'pɐ.sʊs/ while pessoa is /pɨ.ˈso.ɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passos is recorded at frequency rank #2,338, classified as anadj, pronounced /'pɐ.sʊs/. pessoa is at rank #235, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɨ.ˈso.ɐ/.
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 2573, this pair ranks #72,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passos vs pessoa
Shared letters: aops. Private to "passos": -. Private to "pessoa": e.
"passos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pessoa" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passos" and "pessoa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "passos" or "pessoa" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "passos" and "pessoa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "passos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pessoa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passos" and "pessoa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasmo vs passos". 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 #72,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.