só vs su, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“só” and “su” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#50
“só” frequency rank: #6,713
“su” frequency rank: 6763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	só	su
Definition	solitário, sem companhia, sem círculo social	dele

Letter map: só vs su

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

2 ch

só

2 ch

Spelling & dictionary notes on só vs su

só and su are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - ó in “só” becomes u in “su”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

só is recorded at frequency rank #50, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɔ/. su is at rank #6,713, 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 6763, this pair ranks #67,583 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of só vs su

Shared letters: s. Private to "só": ó. Private to "su": u.

"só" · 2 letters · shape CV · "su" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They differ by a single letter - ó in “só” becomes u in “su”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

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

"só" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #50 in our Portuguese list, against #6,713 for "su". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "só" vs "su" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "só" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "su" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #67,583 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"só" and "su" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs su". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #67,583 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.