sobvssusTell them apart

Quick tell: sob is a preposition, sus is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sob” is a preposition and “sus” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#320
“sob” frequency rank
#7,578
“sus” frequency rank
7898
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sob sus
Definition abaixo, em baixo interjeição que demonstra impaciência (século XVI)

Letter map: sob vs sus

Shared letters muted; letters that set sob and sus apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
sob
3 ch
sus

Part-of-speech tell for sob / sus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sob is apreposition and susanintj. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7898, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sob is recorded at frequency rank #320, classified as aprep, pronounced /ˈsob/. sus is at rank #7,578, tagged as anintj.

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 7898, this pair ranks #66,081 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sob vs sus

Shared letters: s. Private to "sob": bo. Private to "sus": u.

"sob" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sob" and "sus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sob" is a preposition and "sus" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sob" or "sus"?
"sob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #320 in our Portuguese list, against #7,578 for "sus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "sob" vs "sus" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,081 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sob" and "sus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,081 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