sievssireTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#40,788
“sie” frequency rank
#48,121
“sire” frequency rank
88909
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sie sire
Definition ela, pronome pessoal feminino do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do singular: senhor (como forma de tratamento a alguém superior)

Letter map: sie vs sire

Shared letters muted; letters that set sie and sire apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. sie runs 3 letters (CVV) against sire's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
sie
4 ch
sire

Grammar separator: sie vs sire

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sie is apronoun and sireanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88909, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sie is recorded at frequency rank #40,788, classified as apron, pronounced /zi:/ ouvir^(fonte ?) ouvir^(fonte ?). sire is at rank #48,121, tagged as anoun.

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 88909, this pair ranks #366 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sie vs sire

Shared letters: eis. Private to "sie": -. Private to "sire": r.

"sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "sire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sire ← isre · sier · sirre · srie · ssire

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sie" for "sire" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sie" is a pronoun and "sire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sie" or "sire"?
"sie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,788 in our Portuguese list, against #48,121 for "sire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sie" and "sire".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sie" and "sire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shire vs sire". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #366 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