seevssmeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#8,391
“see” frequency rank
#40,334
“sme” frequency rank
48725
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature see sme
Definition cê (letra C ou c) primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: see vs sme

Shared letters muted; letters that set see and sme apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
see
3 ch
sme

Grammar separator: see vs sme

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: see is anoun and smeaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “see” becomes m in “sme”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

see is recorded at frequency rank #8,391, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈseː/. 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 48725, this pair ranks #16,427 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of see vs sme

Shared letters: es. Private to "see": -. Private to "sme": m.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "see" for "sme" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "see" is a noun and "sme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "see" or "sme" show up more?
"see" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,391 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "see" 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 #16,427 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "see" and "sme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #16,427 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