sacovssairConfusable pair

Quick tell: saco is a noun, sair is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,166
“saco” frequency rank
#290
“sair” frequency rank
2456
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saco sair
Definition espécie de bolsa de plástico, papel, couro ou pano passar de dentro para fora; deixar

Where the eye mixes saco and sair

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
saco
4 ch
sair

Why the eye confuses saco with sair

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: saco is /ˈsa.ku/ while sair is /sɐ.ˈiɾ/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2456, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saco is recorded at frequency rank #2,166, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsa.ku/. sair is at rank #290, tagged as averb, pronounced /sɐ.ˈiɾ/.

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 2456, this pair ranks #72,930 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of saco vs sair

Shared letters: as. Private to "saco": co. Private to "sair": ir.

"saco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sacosacco · saoc · scao · ssaco
  • sairasir · sairr · sari · siar · ssair

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "saco" for "sair" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "saco" is a noun and "sair" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "saco" or "sair" show up more?
"sair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #290 in our Portuguese list, against #2,166 for "saco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sair" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,930 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saco" and "sair" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saco vs Sau". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #72,930 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