das vs dez, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#35
“das” frequency rank: #771
“dez” frequency rank: 806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	das	dez
Definition	da preposição de com o artigo definido feminino plural as	dotado de bons atributos

Where the eye mixes das and dez

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

3 ch

das

3 ch

dez

Look-alike desk: das vs dez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: das is /dɐs/ while dez is /ˈdɛʃ/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

das is recorded at frequency rank #35, classified as acontraction, pronounced /dɐs/. dez is at rank #771, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɛʃ/.

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 806, this pair ranks #74,843 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of das vs dez

Shared letters: d. Private to "das": as. Private to "dez": ez.

"das" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dez" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "das" and "dez" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

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

"das" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35 in our Portuguese list, against #771 for "dez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "das" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "dez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #74,843 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"das" and "dez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #74,843 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.