das vs dem, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“das” is a contraction and “dem” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35
“das” frequency rank: #7,268
“dem” frequency rank: 7303
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	das	dem
Definition	da preposição de com o artigo definido feminino plural as	o, ao, do, artigo definido masculino do caso dativo singular

Where the eye mixes das and dem

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

3 ch

das

3 ch

dem

Visual trap between das and dem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: das is /dɐs/ while dem is /deːm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7303, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

das is recorded at frequency rank #35, classified as acontraction, pronounced /dɐs/. dem is at rank #7,268, tagged as anarticle, pronounced /deːm/.

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 7303, this pair ranks #66,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of das vs dem

Shared letters: d. Private to "das": as. Private to "dem": em.

"das" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dem" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "das" for "dem" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "das" is a contraction and "dem" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "das" or "dem"?

"das" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35 in our Portuguese list, against #7,268 for "dem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "das" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "dem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #66,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"das" and "dem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dem". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.