sinvssósTell them apart

Quick tell: sin is a pronoun, sós is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#8,687
“sin” frequency rank
#16,887
“sós” frequency rank
25574
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sin sós
Definition aquilo, aquele plural de só

Letter map: sin vs sós

Shared letters muted; letters that set sin and sós apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
sin
3 ch
sós

Part-of-speech tell for sin / sós

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sin is apronoun and sósanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sin is recorded at frequency rank #8,687, classified as apron. sós is at rank #16,887, tagged as anadj.

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 25574, this pair ranks #43,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sin vs sós

Shared letters: s. Private to "sin": in. Private to "sós": ó.

"sin" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sós" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sin" for "sós" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sin" is a pronoun and "sós" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sin" vs "sós" - which ranks higher?
"sin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,687 in our Portuguese list, against #16,887 for "sós". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "sin" and "sós". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sós" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sin" and "sós" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs sós". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #43,728 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