sievssteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#40,788
“sie” frequency rank
#36,242
“ste” frequency rank
77030
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sie ste
Definition ela, pronome pessoal feminino do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do singular: segunda pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: sie vs ste

Shared letters muted; letters that set sie and ste apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sie
3 ch
ste

Part-of-speech tell for sie / ste

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sie is apronoun and steaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “sie” becomes t in “ste”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77030, 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 ?). ste is at rank #36,242, 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 77030, this pair ranks #1,976 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sie vs ste

Shared letters: es. Private to "sie": i. Private to "ste": t.

"sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sie" and "ste" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sie" is a pronoun and "ste" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sie" vs "ste" - which ranks higher?
"ste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,242 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,976 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sie" and "ste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sie". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,976 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