sã vs sim, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#17,153
“sã” frequency rank: #147
“sim” frequency rank: 17300
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sã	sim
Definition	tempo propício, adequado, para semear	exprime afirmação, acordo, aprovação, permissão ou consentimento

Letter map: sã vs sim

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

2 ch

sã

3 ch

sim

Grammar separator: sã vs sim

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sã is anoun and simanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17300, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sã is recorded at frequency rank #17,153, classified as anoun. sim is at rank #147, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈsĩ/.

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 17300, this pair ranks #53,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sã vs sim

Shared letters: s. Private to "sã": ã. Private to "sim": im.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sã" for "sim" ever safe?

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

Which is more common, "sã" or "sim"?

"sim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #147 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

Pair "sã" vs "sim" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "sã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #53,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sã" and "sim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sã vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #53,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.