simvssumaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#147
“sim” frequency rank
#7,978
“suma” frequency rank
8125
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sim suma
Definition exprime afirmação, acordo, aprovação, permissão ou consentimento resumo

Where the eye mixes sim and suma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
sim
4 ch
suma

Visual trap between sim and suma

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sim is /ˈsĩ/ while suma is /ˈsu.mɐ/. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sim is recorded at frequency rank #147, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈsĩ/. suma is at rank #7,978, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsu.mɐ/.

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 8125, this pair ranks #65,765 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sim vs suma

Shared letters: ms. Private to "sim": i. Private to "suma": au.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sumasmua · ssuma · suam · summa · usma

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sim" and "suma" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sim" is an adverb and "suma" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sim" vs "suma" - which ranks higher?
"sim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #147 in our Portuguese list, against #7,978 for "suma". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sim" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,765 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sim" and "suma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sudan vs suma". 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 #65,765 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