Which to use
“past” and “posto” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,081
- “past” frequency rank
- #1,722
- “posto” frequency rank
- 21803
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | past | posto |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | passado | colocado, plantado, posicionado |
Where the eye mixes past and posto
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses past with posto
A purely visual mix-up. past (/pɑːst/) and posto (/ˈpoʃ.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 21803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
past is recorded at frequency rank #20,081, classified as anadj, pronounced /pɑːst/. posto is at rank #1,722, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpoʃ.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 21803, this pair ranks #48,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of past vs posto
Shared letters: pst. Private to "past": a. Private to "posto": o.
"past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "posto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "past" and "posto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "past" or "posto"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "past" and "posto" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "past" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "posto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "past" and "posto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "past 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 #48,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.