daravsdelaConfusable pair

Quick tell: dara is a num, dela is a contraction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dara” is a num and “dela” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,030
“dara” frequency rank
#295
“dela” frequency rank
27325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dara dela
Definition segundo, numeral ordinal relacionado ao número 2 contração da preposição de e do pronome ela

Letter map: dara vs dela

Shared letters muted; letters that set dara and dela apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dara and dela follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
dara
4 ch
dela

Role in the sentence - dara and dela

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dara is anum and delaacontraction. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dara is recorded at frequency rank #27,030, classified as anum. dela is at rank #295, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.lɐ/.

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 27325, this pair ranks #41,670 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dara vs dela

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dara": r. Private to "dela": el.

"dara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dara ← adra · daar · darra · ddara · draa
  • dela ← ddela · deal · della · dlea · edla

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dara" and "dela" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dara" is a num and "dela" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dara" or "dela"?
"dela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #295 in our Portuguese list, against #27,030 for "dara". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "dara" vs "dela" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dela" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,670 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dara" and "dela" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dara 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 #41,670 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