sairvssireTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#290
“sair” frequency rank
#48,121
“sire” frequency rank
48411
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sair sire
Definition passar de dentro para fora; deixar senhor (como forma de tratamento a alguém superior)

Letter map: sair vs sire

Shared letters muted; letters that set sair and sire apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. sair (CVVC) and sire (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
sair
4 ch
sire

Part-of-speech tell for sair / sire

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sair is averb and sireanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48411, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sair is recorded at frequency rank #290, classified as averb, pronounced /sɐ.ˈiɾ/. sire is at rank #48,121, tagged as anoun.

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 48411, this pair ranks #16,761 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sair vs sire

Shared letters: irs. Private to "sair": a. Private to "sire": e.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sair ← asir · sairr · sari · siar · ssair
  • sire ← isre · sier · sirre · srie · ssire

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sair" and "sire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sair" is a verb and "sire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sair" or "sire"?
"sair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #290 in our Portuguese list, against #48,121 for "sire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "sair" vs "sire" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,761 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sair" and "sire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shire vs sire". 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 #16,761 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