shevsshiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: she is a pronoun, shi is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#8,962
“she” frequency rank
#25,143
“shi” frequency rank
34105
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature she shi
Definition caso nominativo da terceira pessoa feminina do singular, ela. exatamente; precisamente

Letter map: she vs shi

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

3 ch
she
3 ch
shi

Role in the sentence - she and shi

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: she is apronoun and shianadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “she” becomes i in “shi”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34105, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

she is recorded at frequency rank #8,962, classified as apron. shi is at rank #25,143, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈʃiː/.

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 34105, this pair ranks #33,252 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of she vs shi

Shared letters: hs. Private to "she": e. Private to "shi": i.

"she" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "shi" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "she" and "shi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "she" is a pronoun and "shi" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "she" or "shi"?
"she" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,962 in our Portuguese list, against #25,143 for "shi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "she" vs "shi" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "she" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,252 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "she" and "shi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs shi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #33,252 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