daívsdigWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,387
“daí” frequency rank
#34,238
“dig” frequency rank
35625
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature daí dig
Definition contração da preposição de com o advérbio de lugar aí: cavar, escavar

Letter map: daí vs dig

Shared letters muted; letters that set daí and dig apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
daí
3 ch
dig

Part-of-speech tell for daí / dig

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: daí is acontraction and digaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35625, 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/. dig is at rank #34,238, tagged as averb.

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 35625, this pair ranks #31,402 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of daí vs dig

Shared letters: d. Private to "daí": . Private to "dig": gi.

"daí" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "dig" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "daí" for "dig" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "daí" is a contraction and "dig" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "daí" vs "dig" - which ranks higher?
"daí" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,387 in our Portuguese list, against #34,238 for "dig". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "daí" and "dig". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "daí" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,402 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "daí" and "dig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dig". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,402 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