Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “duas” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,263
- “dear” frequency rank
- #188
- “duas” frequency rank
- 20451
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | duas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | querido; amado | feminino de dois/dous; representado pelo símbolo 2 (algarismos indo-arábicos) ou II (algarismos romanos) |
Where the eye mixes dear and duas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dear with duas
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dear is /dɪɹ/ while duas is /ˈdu.ɐʃ/. 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 (adjective vs num), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #20,263, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪɹ/. duas is at rank #188, tagged as anum, pronounced /ˈdu.ɐʃ/.
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 20451, this pair ranks #50,078 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs duas
Shared letters: ad. Private to "dear": er. Private to "duas": su.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "duas" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dear" for "duas" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dear" or "duas" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #50,078 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "duas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dear". 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 #50,078 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.