saivssuWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sai is a intj, su is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sai” is an intj and “su” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#998
“sai” frequency rank
#6,713
“su” frequency rank
7711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sai su
Definition expressão que comunica que se deseja que se afaste, que deixe em paz dele

Letter map: sai vs su

Shared letters muted; letters that set sai and su apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
sai
2 ch
su

Part-of-speech tell for sai / su

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sai is anintj and suanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sai is recorded at frequency rank #998, classified as anintj. su is at rank #6,713, tagged as anadj.

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 7711, this pair ranks #66,366 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sai vs su

Shared letters: s. Private to "sai": ai. Private to "su": u.

"sai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "su" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sai" for "su" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sai" is an intj and "su" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sai" or "su"?
"sai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #998 in our Portuguese list, against #6,713 for "su". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sai" and "su".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "su" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,366 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sai" and "su" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs su". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,366 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