daívsDavidWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,387
“daí” frequency rank
#1,164
“David” frequency rank
2551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature daí David
Definition contração da preposição de com o advérbio de lugar aí: Davi

Where the eye mixes daí and David

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
daí
5 ch
David

Why the eye confuses daí with David

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: daí is /dɐ.ˈi/ while David is /ˈdaːvɪt/.. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

daí is recorded at frequency rank #1,387, classified as acontraction, pronounced /dɐ.ˈi/. David is at rank #1,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdaːvɪt/..

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 2551, this pair ranks #72,801 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of daí vs David

Shared letters: ad. Private to "daí": í. Private to "David": iv.

"daí" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "David" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Davidadvid · daivd · davdi · davidd · davvid · ddavid · dvaid

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "daí" for "David" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "daí" is a contraction and "David" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "daí" or "David" show up more?
"David" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,164 in our Portuguese list, against #1,387 for "daí". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "daí" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "David" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,801 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "daí" and "David" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "daí 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 #72,801 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