sme vs só, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“sme” is a verb and “só” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,334
“sme” frequency rank: #50
“só” frequency rank: 40384
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sme	só
Definition	primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť	solitário, sem companhia, sem círculo social

Letter map: sme vs só

Shared letters muted; letters that set sme and só apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

sme

2 ch

só

Grammar separator: sme vs só

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sme is averb and sóanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sme is recorded at frequency rank #40,334, classified as averb. só is at rank #50, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɔ/.

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 40384, this pair ranks #25,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sme vs só

Shared letters: s. Private to "sme": em. Private to "só": ó.

"sme" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "só" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sme" and "só" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sme" is a verb and "só" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sme" or "só" show up more?

"só" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #50 in our Portuguese list, against #40,334 for "sme". 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 "sme" and "só".

Full dictionary entry for "sme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "só" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #25,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sme" and "só" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #25,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.