sejamvssenaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#923
“sejam” frequency rank
#8,959
“sena” frequency rank
9882
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sejam sena
Definition terceira pessoa do plural do presente do subjuntivo do verbo ser. língua bantu de raiz africana falada em Moçambique (código de língua ISO 639-3: seh)

Where the eye mixes sejam and sena

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

5 ch
sejam
4 ch
sena

Why the eye confuses sejam with sena

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sejam is /ˈse.ʒã/ while sena is /ˈse.nɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sejam is recorded at frequency rank #923, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈse.ʒã/. sena is at rank #8,959, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈse.nɐ/.

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 9882, this pair ranks #63,397 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sejam vs sena

Shared letters: aes. Private to "sejam": jm. Private to "sena": n.

"sejam" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sena" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sejamesjam · seajm · sejamm · sejjam · sejma · sjeam · ssejam
  • senaesna · sean · senna · snea · ssena

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sejam" and "sena" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sejam" is a verb and "sena" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sejam" or "sena" show up more?
"sejam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #923 in our Portuguese list, against #8,959 for "sena". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sejam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sena" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,397 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sejam" and "sena" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sena 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 #63,397 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