Which to use
“da” is a contraction and “dash” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8
- “da” frequency rank
- #21,982
- “dash” frequency rank
- 21990
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | da | dash |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | contração da preposição de com o artigo definido a | travessão, hífen |
Where the eye mixes da and dash
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses da with dash
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: da is /da/ while dash is /ˈdæʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “da” sits inside “dash”, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
da is recorded at frequency rank #8, classified as acontraction, pronounced /da/. dash is at rank #21,982, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdæʃ/.
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 21990, this pair ranks #48,158 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of da vs dash
Shared letters: ad. Private to "da": -. Private to "dash": hs.
"da" · 2 letters · shape CV · "dash" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dash ← adsh · dahs · dashh · dassh · ddash · dsah
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "da" and "dash" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "da" vs "dash" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "da" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dash" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,158 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "da" and "dash" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dash vs dat". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #48,158 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.