sie vs sois, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#40,788
“sie” frequency rank: #20,136
“sois” frequency rank: 60924
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sie	sois
Definition	ela, pronome pessoal feminino do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do singular:	segunda pessoa do plural do presente do indicativo do verbo ser

Where the spellings diverge

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

3 ch

sie

4 ch

sois

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sie is /zi:/ ouvir^(fonte ?) ouvir^(fonte ?) while sois is /ˈsojs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60924, 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 ?). sois is at rank #20,136, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsojs/.

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 60924, this pair ranks #7,414 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sie vs sois

Shared letters: is. Private to "sie": e. Private to "sois": o.

"sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "sois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

sois ← osis · sios · soiss · sosi · ssois

Frequency comparison

sie#40,788

sois#20,136

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sie" and "sois" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "sie" or "sois"?

"sois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,136 in our Portuguese list, against #40,788 for "sie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering sie vs sois

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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