delvsdeveWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: del is a contraction, deve is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“del” is a contraction and “deve” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,706
“del” frequency rank
#182
“deve” frequency rank
1888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature del deve
Definition do, da, contração da preposição de com o artigo definido singular el: terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo dever

Letter map: del vs deve

Shared letters muted; letters that set del and deve apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
del
4 ch
deve

Grammar separator: del vs deve

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: del is acontraction and deveaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

del is recorded at frequency rank #1,706, classified as acontraction. deve is at rank #182, tagged as averb.

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 1888, this pair ranks #73,640 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of del vs deve

Shared letters: de. Private to "del": l. Private to "deve": v.

"del" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "deve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deveddeve · deev · devve · dvee · edve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "del" for "deve" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "del" is a contraction and "deve" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "del" vs "deve" - which ranks higher?
"deve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #182 in our Portuguese list, against #1,706 for "del". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "del" vs "deve" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "del" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,640 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "del" and "deve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs del". 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 #73,640 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