sem vs suma, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#69
“sem” frequency rank: #7,978
“suma” frequency rank: 8047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sem	suma
Definition	indicativa de carência ou ausência	resumo

Where the eye mixes sem and suma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

sem

4 ch

suma

Visual trap between sem and suma

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sem is /sɐ̃j̃/ while suma is /ˈsu.mɐ/. 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 (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sem is recorded at frequency rank #69, classified as aprep, pronounced /sɐ̃j̃/. suma is at rank #7,978, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsu.mɐ/.

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 8047, this pair ranks #65,877 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sem vs suma

Shared letters: ms. Private to "sem": e. Private to "suma": au.

"sem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "suma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

suma ← smua · ssuma · suam · summa · usma

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sem" for "suma" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sem" is a preposition and "suma" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "sem" or "suma"?

"sem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #69 in our Portuguese list, against #7,978 for "suma". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "sem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "suma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #65,877 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sem" and "suma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sudan vs suma". 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 #65,877 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.