shevssmeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,962
“she” frequency rank
#40,334
“sme” frequency rank
49296
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature she sme
Definition caso nominativo da terceira pessoa feminina do singular, ela. primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set she and sme apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
she
3 ch
sme

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: she is apronoun and smeaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - h in “she” becomes m in “sme”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

she is recorded at frequency rank #8,962, classified as apron. sme is at rank #40,334, tagged as averb.

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 49296, this pair ranks #15,740 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of she vs sme

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

"she" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "sme" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequency comparison

she#8,962
sme#40,334

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "she" and "sme" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "she" is a pronoun and "sme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "she" or "sme"?
"she" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,962 in our Portuguese list, against #40,334 for "sme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering she vs sme

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “she”; for a verb, it's “sme”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “she” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list