seivssteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sei is a intj, ste is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sei” is an intj and “ste” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#118
“sei” frequency rank
#36,242
“ste” frequency rank
36360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sei ste
Definition expressa que aquilo ouvido que foi dito ou afirmado por alguém não é tomado como sendo a verdade segunda pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: sei vs ste

Shared letters muted; letters that set sei and ste apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sei
3 ch
ste

Part-of-speech tell for sei / ste

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sei is anintj and steaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sei is recorded at frequency rank #118, classified as anintj. ste is at rank #36,242, 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 36360, this pair ranks #30,483 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sei vs ste

Shared letters: es. Private to "sei": i. Private to "ste": t.

"sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sei" for "ste" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sei" is an intj and "ste" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sei" vs "ste" - which ranks higher?
"sei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #118 in our Portuguese list, against #36,242 for "ste". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sei" and "ste".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,483 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sei" and "ste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs ste". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,483 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