samavssaunaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sama is a pronoun, sauna is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sama” is a pronoun and “sauna” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,025
“sama” frequency rank
#22,455
“sauna” frequency rank
50480
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sama sauna
Definition forma nominativo feminino singular do pronome sám uma espécie de banho de vapor

Letter map: sama vs sauna

Shared letters muted; letters that set sama and sauna apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
sama
5 ch
sauna

Part-of-speech tell for sama / sauna

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sama is apronoun and saunaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sama is recorded at frequency rank #28,025, classified as apron. sauna is at rank #22,455, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsaw.nɐ/.

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 50480, this pair ranks #14,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sama vs sauna

Shared letters: as. Private to "sama": m. Private to "sauna": nu.

"sama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sauna" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • samasaam · samma · smaa · ssama
  • saunaasuna · sanua · sauan · saunna · ssauna · suana

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sama" for "sauna" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sama" is a pronoun and "sauna" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sama" or "sauna" show up more?
"sauna" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,455 in our Portuguese list, against #28,025 for "sama". 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 "sama" and "sauna".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sauna" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sama" and "sauna" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sama vs Sau". 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 #14,476 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