sã vs sei, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“sã” is a noun and “sei” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,153
“sã” frequency rank: #118
“sei” frequency rank: 17271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sã	sei
Definition	tempo propício, adequado, para semear	expressa que aquilo ouvido que foi dito ou afirmado por alguém não é tomado como sendo a verdade

Letter map: sã vs sei

Shared letters muted; letters that set sã and sei apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. sã runs 2 letters (CV) against sei's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

2 ch

sã

3 ch

sei

Grammar separator: sã vs sei

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sã is anoun and seianintj. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sã is recorded at frequency rank #17,153, classified as anoun. sei is at rank #118, tagged as anintj.

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 17271, this pair ranks #54,016 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sã vs sei

Shared letters: s. Private to "sã": ã. Private to "sei": ei.

"sã" · 2 letters · shape CV · "sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sã" for "sei" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sã" is a noun and "sei" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sã" or "sei" show up more?

"sei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #118 in our Portuguese list, against #17,153 for "sã". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "sã" and "sei". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "sã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #54,016 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sã" and "sei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sã vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #54,016 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.