Sau vs sme, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#49,171
“Sau” frequency rank: #40,334
“sme” frequency rank: 89505
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Sau	sme
Definition	porco	primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: Sau vs sme

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

3 ch

sme

Grammar separator: Sau vs sme

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Sau 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 89505, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sau is recorded at frequency rank #49,171, classified as anoun, pronounced /zaʊ̯/. 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 89505, this pair ranks #327 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Sau vs sme

Shared letters: s. Private to "Sau": au. Private to "sme": em.

"Sau" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "sme" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Sau" for "sme" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sau" is a noun and "sme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "Sau" vs "sme" - which ranks higher?

"sme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,334 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.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Sau" and "sme".

Full dictionary entry for "Sau" 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 #327 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Sau" and "sme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #327 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.