Which to use
“sem” is a preposition and “sin” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #69
- “sem” frequency rank
- #8,687
- “sin” frequency rank
- 8756
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sem | sin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | indicativa de carência ou ausência | aquilo, aquele |
Letter map: sem vs sin
Shared letters muted; letters that set sem and sin apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for sem / sin
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sem is apreposition and sinapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8756, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sem is recorded at frequency rank #69, classified as aprep, pronounced /sɐ̃j̃/. sin is at rank #8,687, 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 8756, this pair ranks #64,897 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sem vs sin
Shared letters: s. Private to "sem": em. Private to "sin": in.
"sem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "sin" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sem" and "sin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sem" or "sin" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "sem" vs "sin" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "sem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,897 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sem" and "sin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sin". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #64,897 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.