si vs sme, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#482
“si” frequency rank: #40,334
“sme” frequency rank: 40816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	si	sme
Definition	refere-se à terceira pessoa, indica reflexividade e é usado após preposição (a, de, em, contra, sobre, por, etc., exceto com)	primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: si vs sme

Shared letters muted; letters that set si and sme apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

sme

Grammar separator: si vs sme

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: si is apronoun and smeaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

si is recorded at frequency rank #482, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈsi/. 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 40816, this pair ranks #25,228 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of si vs sme

Shared letters: s. Private to "si": i. Private to "sme": em.

"si" · 2 letters · shape CV · "sme" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "si" and "sme" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "si" is a pronoun and "sme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "si" or "sme" show up more?

"si" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #482 in our Portuguese list, against #40,334 for "sme". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "si" vs "sme" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "si" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #25,228 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"si" and "sme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #25,228 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.