Which to use
“del” is a contraction and “dem” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,706
- “del” frequency rank
- #7,268
- “dem” frequency rank
- 8974
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | del | dem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | do, da, contração da preposição de com o artigo definido singular el: | o, ao, do, artigo definido masculino do caso dativo singular |
Letter map: del vs dem
Shared letters muted; letters that set del and dem apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for del / dem
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: del is acontraction and demanarticle. On the page they differ by a single letter - l in “del” becomes m in “dem”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
del is recorded at frequency rank #1,706, classified as acontraction. 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 8974, this pair ranks #64,613 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of del vs dem
Shared letters: de. Private to "del": l. Private to "dem": m.
"del" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dem" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "del" for "dem" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "del" or "dem" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "del" and "dem". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "del" 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 #64,613 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "del" and "dem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dem". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #64,613 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.