sinvssouTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,687
“sin” frequency rank
#106
“sou” frequency rank
8793
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sin sou
Definition aquilo, aquele primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ser

Letter map: sin vs sou

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

3 ch
sin
3 ch
sou

Role in the sentence - sin and sou

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sin is apronoun and souaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8793, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sin is recorded at frequency rank #8,687, classified as apron. sou is at rank #106, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsow/, /ˈso/.

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 8793, this pair ranks #64,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sin vs sou

Shared letters: s. Private to "sin": in. Private to "sou": ou.

"sin" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sou" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sin" and "sou" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sin" is a pronoun and "sou" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sin" vs "sou" - which ranks higher?
"sou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #106 in our Portuguese list, against #8,687 for "sin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sin" and "sou".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sin" and "sou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sin". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #64,861 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