sinvsskiConfusable pair

Quick tell: sin is a pronoun, ski is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sin” is a pronoun and “ski” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,687
“sin” frequency rank
#20,135
“ski” frequency rank
28822
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sin ski
Definition aquilo, aquele esqui

Letter map: sin vs ski

Shared letters muted; letters that set sin and ski apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sin
3 ch
ski

Part-of-speech tell for sin / ski

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sin is apronoun and skianoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sin is recorded at frequency rank #8,687, classified as apron. ski is at rank #20,135, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ski/, SAMPA: /ski/.

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 28822, this pair ranks #39,949 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sin vs ski

Shared letters: is. Private to "sin": n. Private to "ski": k.

"sin" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "ski" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sin" for "ski" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sin" is a pronoun and "ski" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sin" or "ski" show up more?
"sin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,687 in our Portuguese list, against #20,135 for "ski". 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 "sin" and "ski".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ski" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,949 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sin" and "ski" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs ski". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,949 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