daívsdeviWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,387
“daí” frequency rank
#47,301
“devi” frequency rank
48688
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature daí devi
Definition contração da preposição de com o advérbio de lugar aí: dever, ter obrigação de, ter que

Where the eye mixes daí and devi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
daí
4 ch
devi

Why the eye confuses daí with devi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: daí is /dɐ.ˈi/ while devi is /ˈde.vi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48688, 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/. devi is at rank #47,301, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈde.vi/.

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 48688, this pair ranks #16,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of daí vs devi

Shared letters: d. Private to "daí": . Private to "devi": eiv.

"daí" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "devi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deviddevi · deiv · devvi · dvei · edvi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "daí" for "devi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "daí" is a contraction and "devi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "daí" vs "devi" - which ranks higher?
"daí" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,387 in our Portuguese list, against #47,301 for "devi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "daí" and "devi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "daí" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "daí" and "devi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devi vs device". 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 #16,476 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