saisvsslipWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,150
“sais” frequency rank
#48,124
“slip” frequency rank
59274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sais slip
Definition substâncias voláteis dadas a uma pessoa desmaiada para fazer com que ela acorde escorregão

Letter map: sais vs slip

Shared letters muted; letters that set sais and slip apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. sais (CVVC) and slip (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
sais
4 ch
slip

Corpus notes: sais and slip

sais and slip 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sais is recorded at frequency rank #11,150, classified as anoun. slip is at rank #48,124, tagged as anoun, pronounced /slɪp/.

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 59274, this pair ranks #8,270 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sais vs slip

Shared letters: is. Private to "sais": a. Private to "slip": lp.

"sais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "slip" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sais ← saiss · sasi · sias · ssais
  • slip ← lsip · silp · slipp · sllip · slpi · sslip

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sais" for "slip" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "sais" vs "slip" - which ranks higher?
"sais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,150 in our Portuguese list, against #48,124 for "slip". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "sais" vs "slip" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "slip" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,270 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sais" and "slip" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "slip vs soap". 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 #8,270 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