sem vs sus, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#69
“sem” frequency rank: #7,578
“sus” frequency rank: 7647
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sem	sus
Definition	indicativa de carência ou ausência	interjeição que demonstra impaciência (século XVI)

Letter map: sem vs sus

Shared letters muted; letters that set sem and sus apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

sem

3 ch

sus

Grammar separator: sem vs sus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sem is apreposition and susanintj. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7647, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sem is recorded at frequency rank #69, classified as aprep, pronounced /sɐ̃j̃/. sus is at rank #7,578, tagged as anintj.

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 7647, this pair ranks #66,448 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sem vs sus

Shared letters: s. Private to "sem": em. Private to "sus": u.

"sem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "sus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sem" and "sus" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Frequency check: "sem" vs "sus" - which ranks higher?

"sem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #69 in our Portuguese list, against #7,578 for "sus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "sem" vs "sus" 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 "sus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #66,448 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sem" and "sus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,448 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.