sapvssmeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#32,768
“sap” frequency rank
#40,334
“sme” frequency rank
73102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sap sme
Definition seiva primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: sap vs sme

Shared letters muted; letters that set sap and sme apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. sap (CVC) and sme (CCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
sap
3 ch
sme

Part-of-speech tell for sap / sme

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sap is anoun and smeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sap is recorded at frequency rank #32,768, classified as anoun, pronounced /sæp/. sme is at rank #40,334, tagged as averb.

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 73102, this pair ranks #2,868 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sap vs sme

Shared letters: s. Private to "sap": ap. Private to "sme": em.

"sap" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sme" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sap" for "sme" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sap" is a noun and "sme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sap" vs "sme" - which ranks higher?
"sap" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,768 in our Portuguese list, against #40,334 for "sme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "sap" vs "sme" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sap" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,868 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sap" and "sme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,868 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