shevssomWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,962
“she” frequency rank
#1,134
“som” frequency rank
10096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature she som
Definition caso nominativo da terceira pessoa feminina do singular, ela. onda longitudinal transmitida pela matéria e que podemos ouvir (geralmente entre 20Hz e 20kHz):

Letter map: she vs som

Shared letters muted; letters that set she and som apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
she
3 ch
som

Role in the sentence - she and som

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: she is apronoun and somanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

she is recorded at frequency rank #8,962, classified as apron. som is at rank #1,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsõ/.

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 10096, this pair ranks #63,123 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of she vs som

Shared letters: s. Private to "she": eh. Private to "som": mo.

"she" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "som" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "she" and "som" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "she" is a pronoun and "som" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "she" or "som" show up more?
"som" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,134 in our Portuguese list, against #8,962 for "she". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "she" and "som".

  • Full dictionary entry for "she" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "som" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,123 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "she" and "som" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs she". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,123 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