saquevsSauWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,144
“saque” frequency rank
#49,171
“Sau” frequency rank
61315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saque Sau
Definition ato ou efeito de sacar porco

Where the eye mixes saque and Sau

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
saque
3 ch
Sau

Why the eye confuses saque with Sau

A purely visual mix-up. saque (/ˈsa.kɨ/) and Sau (/zaʊ̯/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saque is recorded at frequency rank #12,144, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsa.kɨ/. 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 61315, this pair ranks #7,191 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of saque vs Sau

Shared letters: asu. Private to "saque": eq. Private to "Sau": -.

"saque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "Sau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saqueasque · saqeu · saqque · sauqe · sqaue · ssaque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "saque" and "Sau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsa.kɨ/ versus /zaʊ̯/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "saque" or "Sau"?
"saque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,144 in our Portuguese list, against #49,171 for "Sau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saque" 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 #7,191 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saque" 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 #7,191 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