semvssheWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sem is a preposition, she is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sem” is a preposition and “she” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#69
“sem” frequency rank
#8,962
“she” frequency rank
9031
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sem she
Definition indicativa de carência ou ausência caso nominativo da terceira pessoa feminina do singular, ela.

Letter map: sem vs she

Shared letters muted; letters that set sem and she apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sem
3 ch
she

Part-of-speech tell for sem / she

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sem is apreposition and sheapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9031, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sem is recorded at frequency rank #69, classified as aprep, pronounced /sɐ̃j̃/. she is at rank #8,962, tagged as apron.

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 9031, this pair ranks #64,539 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sem vs she

Shared letters: es. Private to "sem": m. Private to "she": h.

"sem" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "she" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sem" and "she" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sem" is a preposition and "she" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sem" or "she"?
"sem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #69 in our Portuguese list, against #8,962 for "she". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sem" and "she".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "she" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,539 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sem" and "she" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs she". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #64,539 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