sacvssieTell them apart

Quick tell: sac is a noun, sie is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sac” is a noun and “sie” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,816
“sac” frequency rank
#40,788
“sie” frequency rank
64604
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sac sie
Definition saco, bolsa ela, pronome pessoal feminino do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do singular:

Where the eye mixes sac and sie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. sac (CVC) and sie (CVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
sac
3 ch
sie

Visual trap between sac and sie

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sac is \sak\ while sie is /zi:/ ouvir^(fonte ?) ouvir^(fonte ?). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64604, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sac is recorded at frequency rank #23,816, classified as anoun, pronounced \sak\. sie is at rank #40,788, tagged as apron, pronounced /zi:/ ouvir^(fonte ?) ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 64604, this pair ranks #5,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sac vs sie

Shared letters: s. Private to "sac": ac. Private to "sie": ei.

"sac" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sac" for "sie" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sac" is a noun and "sie" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sac" vs "sie" - which ranks higher?
"sac" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,816 in our Portuguese list, against #40,788 for "sie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "sac" and "sie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sac" and "sie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sie". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #5,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list