saiuvsSauTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,035
“saiu” frequency rank
#49,171
“Sau” frequency rank
50206
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saiu Sau
Definition Terceira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo sair. porco

Letter map: saiu vs Sau

Shared letters muted; letters that set saiu and Sau apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. saiu runs 4 letters (CVVV) against Sau's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
saiu
3 ch
Sau

Part-of-speech tell for saiu / Sau

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: saiu is averb and Sauanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50206, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saiu is recorded at frequency rank #1,035, classified as averb. Sau is at rank #49,171, tagged as anoun, pronounced /zaʊ̯/.

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 50206, this pair ranks #14,781 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of saiu vs Sau

Shared letters: asu. Private to "saiu": i. Private to "Sau": -.

"saiu" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "Sau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saiu ← asiu · saui · siau · ssaiu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "saiu" for "Sau" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "saiu" is a verb and "Sau" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "saiu" vs "Sau" - which ranks higher?
"saiu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,035 in our Portuguese list, against #49,171 for "Sau". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "saiu" and "Sau". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saiu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,781 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saiu" and "Sau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau 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 #14,781 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