só vs suu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#50
“só” frequency rank: #47,111
“suu” frequency rank: 47161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	só	suu
Definition	solitário, sem companhia, sem círculo social	boca, cavidade oral

Where the eye mixes só and suu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

só

3 ch

suu

Look-alike desk: só vs suu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: só is /ˈsɔ/ while suu is /ˈsuː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

só is recorded at frequency rank #50, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɔ/. suu is at rank #47,111, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsuː/.

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 47161, this pair ranks #18,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of só vs suu

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

"só" · 2 letters · shape CV · "suu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "só" and "suu" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "só" or "suu"?

"só" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #50 in our Portuguese list, against #47,111 for "suu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "só" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "suu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #18,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"só" and "suu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.