s vs sie, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“s” is a symbol and “sie” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#511
“s” frequency rank: #40,788
“sie” frequency rank: 41299
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	s	sie
Definition	símbolo de segundo	ela, pronome pessoal feminino do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do singular:

Letter map: s vs sie

Shared letters muted; letters that set s and sie apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch

3 ch

sie

Role in the sentence - s and sie

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: s is asymbol and sieapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “s” sits inside “sie”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

s is recorded at frequency rank #511, classified as asymbol. sie is at rank #40,788, tagged as apron, pronounced /zi:/ ouvir^(fonte ?) ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 41299, this pair ranks #24,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of s vs sie

Shared letters: s. Private to "s": -. Private to "sie": ei.

"s" · 1 letters · shape C · "sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "s" and "sie" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "s" is a symbol and "sie" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "s" or "sie"?

"s" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #511 in our Portuguese list, against #40,788 for "sie". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "s" vs "sie" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "s" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #24,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"s" and "sie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sie". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #24,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.