safevssteTell them apart

Which to use

“safe” and “ste” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,193
“safe” frequency rank
#36,242
“ste” frequency rank
62435
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature safe ste
Definition primeira ou terceira pessoa do presente subjuntivo de safar segunda pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: safe vs ste

Shared letters muted; letters that set safe and ste apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
safe
3 ch
ste

Corpus notes: safe and ste

safe and ste are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

safe is recorded at frequency rank #26,193, classified as averb, pronounced /seɪf/, enPR: sāf. ste is at rank #36,242, tagged as averb.

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 62435, this pair ranks #6,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of safe vs ste

Shared letters: es. Private to "safe": af. Private to "ste": t.

"safe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • safeasfe · saef · saffe · sfae · ssafe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "safe" and "ste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "safe" or "ste"?
"safe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,193 in our Portuguese list, against #36,242 for "ste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "safe" vs "ste" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "safe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "safe" and "ste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs ste". 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 #6,668 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