smevssósWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#40,334
“sme” frequency rank
#16,887
“sós” frequency rank
57221
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sme sós
Definition primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť plural de só

Letter map: sme vs sós

Shared letters muted; letters that set sme and sós apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. sme (CCV) and sós (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
sme
3 ch
sós

Role in the sentence - sme and sós

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sme is averb and sósanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57221, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sme is recorded at frequency rank #40,334, classified as averb. 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 57221, this pair ranks #9,458 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sme vs sós

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

"sme" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "sós" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sme" for "sós" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sme" is a verb and "sós" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sme" or "sós" show up more?
"sós" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,887 in our Portuguese list, against #40,334 for "sme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sme" 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 #9,458 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sme" and "sós" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #9,458 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