davsduraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: da is a contraction, dura is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“da” is a contraction and “dura” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8
“da” frequency rank
#2,319
“dura” frequency rank
2327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature da dura
Definition contração da preposição de com o artigo definido a o mesmo que duração ('qualidade do que dura')

Letter map: da vs dura

Shared letters muted; letters that set da and dura apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. da runs 2 letters (CV) against dura's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

2 ch
da
4 ch
dura

Grammar separator: da vs dura

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: da is acontraction and duraanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

da is recorded at frequency rank #8, classified as acontraction, pronounced /da/. dura is at rank #2,319, tagged as anoun.

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 2327, this pair ranks #73,094 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of da vs dura

Shared letters: ad. Private to "da": -. Private to "dura": ru.

"da" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "dura" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dura ← ddura · drua · duar · durra · udra

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "da" and "dura" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "da" is a contraction and "dura" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "da" vs "dura" - which ranks higher?
"da" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8 in our Portuguese list, against #2,319 for "dura". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "da" vs "dura" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "da" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,094 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "da" and "dura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doula vs dura". 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 #73,094 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