sã vs sem, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#17,153
“sã” frequency rank: #69
“sem” frequency rank: 17222
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sã	sem
Definition	tempo propício, adequado, para semear	indicativa de carência ou ausência

Letter map: sã vs sem

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

2 ch

sã

3 ch

sem

Part-of-speech tell for sã / sem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sã is anoun and semapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17222, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sã is recorded at frequency rank #17,153, classified as anoun. sem is at rank #69, tagged as aprep, pronounced /sɐ̃j̃/.

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 17222, this pair ranks #54,091 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sã vs sem

Shared letters: s. Private to "sã": ã. Private to "sem": em.

"sã" · 2 letters · shape CV · "sem" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sã" and "sem" be used interchangeably?

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

Frequency check: "sã" vs "sem" - which ranks higher?

"sem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #69 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.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sã" and "sem".

Full dictionary entry for "sã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #54,091 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sã" and "sem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sã vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #54,091 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.