scenevsseeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,785
“scene” frequency rank
#8,391
“see” frequency rank
33176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scene see
Definition cena cê (letra C ou c)

Where the eye mixes scene and see

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

5 ch
scene
3 ch
see

Why the eye confuses scene with see

A purely visual mix-up. scene (/siːn/) and see (/ˈseː/) 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 33176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scene is recorded at frequency rank #24,785, classified as anoun, pronounced /siːn/. see is at rank #8,391, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈseː/.

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 33176, this pair ranks #34,410 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of scene vs see

Shared letters: es. Private to "scene": cn. Private to "see": -.

"scene" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "see" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • scenecsene · sccene · sceen · scenne · scnee · secne · sscene

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "scene" for "see" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/siːn/ versus /ˈseː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "scene" or "see"?
"see" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,391 in our Portuguese list, against #24,785 for "scene". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "scene" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "see" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,410 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scene" and "see" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scene vs sueño". 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 #34,410 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