sim vs sus, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#147
“sim” frequency rank: #7,578
“sus” frequency rank: 7725
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sim	sus
Definition	exprime afirmação, acordo, aprovação, permissão ou consentimento	interjeição que demonstra impaciência (século XVI)

Letter map: sim vs sus

Shared letters muted; letters that set sim and sus apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

sim

3 ch

sus

Grammar separator: sim vs sus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sim is anadverb and susanintj. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sim is recorded at frequency rank #147, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈsĩ/. sus is at rank #7,578, tagged as anintj.

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 7725, this pair ranks #66,341 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sim vs sus

Shared letters: s. Private to "sim": im. Private to "sus": u.

"sim" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "sus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sim" and "sus" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sim" is an adverb and "sus" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sim" or "sus" show up more?

"sim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #147 in our Portuguese list, against #7,578 for "sus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "sim" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #66,341 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sim" and "sus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,341 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.