seçãovssejamWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,496
“seção” frequency rank
#923
“sejam” frequency rank
3419
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seção sejam
Definition subdivisão de um capítulo, obra, tratado ou estudo terceira pessoa do plural do presente do subjuntivo do verbo ser.

Letter map: seção vs sejam

Shared letters muted; letters that set seção and sejam apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. seção (CVCVV) and sejam (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
seção
5 ch
sejam

Part-of-speech tell for seção / sejam

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seção is anoun and sejamaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3419, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seção is recorded at frequency rank #2,496, classified as anoun. sejam is at rank #923, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈse.ʒã/.

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 3419, this pair ranks #71,738 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seção vs sejam

Shared letters: es. Private to "seção": oãç. Private to "sejam": ajm.

"seção" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "sejam" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sejam ← esjam · seajm · sejamm · sejjam · sejma · sjeam · ssejam

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seção" and "sejam" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seção" is a noun and "sejam" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "seção" or "sejam"?
"sejam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #923 in our Portuguese list, against #2,496 for "seção". 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 "seção" and "sejam".

  • Full dictionary entry for "seção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sejam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,738 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seção" and "sejam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seção vs seno". 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 #71,738 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