s vs só, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#511
“s” frequency rank: #50
“só” frequency rank: 561
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	s	só
Definition	símbolo de segundo	solitário, sem companhia, sem círculo social

Letter map: s vs só

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

1 ch

2 ch

só

Role in the sentence - s and só

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: s is asymbol and sóanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “s” sits inside “só”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 561, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

s is recorded at frequency rank #511, classified as asymbol. só is at rank #50, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɔ/.

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 561, this pair ranks #75,110 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of s vs só

Shared letters: s. Private to "s": -. Private to "só": ó.

"s" · 1 letters · shape C · "só" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "s" and "só" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Which is more common, "s" or "só"?

"só" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #50 in our Portuguese list, against #511 for "s". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "s" and "só".

Full dictionary entry for "s" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "só" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #75,110 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"s" and "só" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "só vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #75,110 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.