smevssunWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#40,334
“sme” frequency rank
#7,698
“sun” frequency rank
48032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sme sun
Definition primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť Sol

Letter map: sme vs sun

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

3 ch
sme
3 ch
sun

Grammar separator: sme vs sun

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sme is averb and sunanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sme is recorded at frequency rank #40,334, classified as averb. sun is at rank #7,698, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sʌn/.

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 48032, this pair ranks #17,187 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sme vs sun

Shared letters: s. Private to "sme": em. Private to "sun": nu.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sme" and "sun" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sme" is a verb and "sun" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sme" or "sun" show up more?
"sun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,698 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 "sun". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,187 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sme" and "sun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,187 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