debatevsdesteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: debate is a noun, deste is a contraction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“debate” is a noun and “deste” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,270
“debate” frequency rank
#346
“deste” frequency rank
2616
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debate deste
Definition discussão contração da preposição de com o pronome ou determinante demonstrativo este:

Letter map: debate vs deste

Shared letters muted; letters that set debate and deste apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
debate
5 ch
deste

Grammar separator: debate vs deste

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: debate is anoun and desteacontraction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2616, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

debate is recorded at frequency rank #2,270, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɨ.ˈba.tɨ/. deste is at rank #346, tagged as acontraction.

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 2616, this pair ranks #72,713 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of debate vs deste

Shared letters: det. Private to "debate": ab. Private to "deste": s.

"debate" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "deste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • debatedbeate · ddebate · deabte · debaet · debatte · debbate · debtae · edbate
  • desteddeste · deset · desste · destte · detse · dsete · edste

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "debate" for "deste" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "debate" is a noun and "deste" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "debate" or "deste" show up more?
"deste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #346 in our Portuguese list, against #2,270 for "debate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "debate" and "deste".

  • Full dictionary entry for "debate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,713 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "debate" and "deste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "debate vs decade". 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 #72,713 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