sã vs sou, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#17,153
“sã” frequency rank: #106
“sou” frequency rank: 17259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sã	sou
Definition	tempo propício, adequado, para semear	primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ser

Letter map: sã vs sou

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

2 ch

sã

3 ch

sou

Grammar separator: sã vs sou

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sã is anoun and souaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sã is recorded at frequency rank #17,153, classified as anoun. sou is at rank #106, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsow/, /ˈso/.

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 17259, this pair ranks #54,035 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sã vs sou

Shared letters: s. Private to "sã": ã. Private to "sou": ou.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sã" for "sou" ever safe?

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

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

"sou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #106 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.

Useful next steps

Pair "sã" vs "sou" 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 "sou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #54,035 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sã" and "sou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sã vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #54,035 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.