ste vs sue, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ste” is a verb and “sue” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,242
“ste” frequency rank: #16,624
“sue” frequency rank: 52866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ste	sue
Definition	segunda pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť	forma sem gênero de seu ou sua

Letter map: ste vs sue

Shared letters muted; letters that set ste and sue apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

ste

3 ch

sue

Grammar separator: ste vs sue

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ste is averb and sueapronoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - t in “ste” becomes u in “sue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ste is recorded at frequency rank #36,242, classified as averb. sue is at rank #16,624, tagged as apron.

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 52866, this pair ranks #12,441 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ste vs sue

Shared letters: es. Private to "ste": t. Private to "sue": u.

"ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "sue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ste" and "sue" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ste" is a verb and "sue" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "ste" vs "sue" - which ranks higher?

"sue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,624 in our Portuguese list, against #36,242 for "ste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "ste" vs "sue" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #12,441 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ste" and "sue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs ste". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #12,441 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.