sirevssofreConfusable pair

Quick tell: sire is a noun, sofre is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sire” is a noun and “sofre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,121
“sire” frequency rank
#3,108
“sofre” frequency rank
51229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sire sofre
Definition senhor (como forma de tratamento a alguém superior) terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo sofrer

Letter map: sire vs sofre

Shared letters muted; letters that set sire and sofre apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. sire runs 4 letters (CVCV) against sofre's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
sire
5 ch
sofre

Role in the sentence - sire and sofre

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sire is anoun and sofreaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sire is recorded at frequency rank #48,121, classified as anoun. sofre is at rank #3,108, tagged as averb.

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 51229, this pair ranks #13,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sire vs sofre

Shared letters: ers. Private to "sire": i. Private to "sofre": fo.

"sire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sofre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sire ← isre · sier · sirre · srie · ssire
  • sofre ← osfre · sfore · sofer · soffre · sorfe · ssofre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sire" and "sofre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sire" is a noun and "sofre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sire" or "sofre" show up more?
"sofre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,108 in our Portuguese list, against #48,121 for "sire". 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 "sire" and "sofre".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sofre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sire" and "sofre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shire vs sire". 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 #13,774 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