simvssireWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#147
“sim” frequency rank
#48,121
“sire” frequency rank
48268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sim sire
Definition exprime afirmação, acordo, aprovação, permissão ou consentimento senhor (como forma de tratamento a alguém superior)

Letter map: sim vs sire

Shared letters muted; letters that set sim and sire apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sim
4 ch
sire

Role in the sentence - sim and sire

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sim is anadverb and sireanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sim is recorded at frequency rank #147, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈsĩ/. 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 48268, this pair ranks #16,918 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sim vs sire

Shared letters: is. Private to "sim": m. Private to "sire": er.

"sim" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sireisre · sier · sirre · srie · ssire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sim" and "sire" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sim" is an adverb and "sire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sim" vs "sire" - which ranks higher?
"sim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #147 in our Portuguese list, against #48,121 for "sire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sim" 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 #16,918 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sim" 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 #16,918 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