s vs som, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#511
“s” frequency rank: #1,134
“som” frequency rank: 1645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	s	som
Definition	símbolo de segundo	onda longitudinal transmitida pela matéria e que podemos ouvir (geralmente entre 20Hz e 20kHz):

Letter map: s vs som

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

1 ch

3 ch

som

Part-of-speech tell for s / som

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: s is asymbol and somanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “s” sits inside “som”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

s is recorded at frequency rank #511, classified as asymbol. som is at rank #1,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsõ/.

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 1645, this pair ranks #73,883 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of s vs som

Shared letters: s. Private to "s": -. Private to "som": mo.

"s" · 1 letters · shape C · "som" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "s" or "som" show up more?

"s" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #511 in our Portuguese list, against #1,134 for "som". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "s" vs "som" 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 "som" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #73,883 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"s" and "som" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs som". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,883 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.