delvsdiesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,706
“del” frequency rank
#34,236
“dies” frequency rank
35942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature del dies
Definition do, da, contração da preposição de com o artigo definido singular el: dia; o dia romano era o período compreendido entre o nascer do sol e o ocaso e divido em 12 horas; nessa acepção (de prazo e no singular) assume o gênero feminino

Letter map: del vs dies

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

3 ch
del
4 ch
dies

Grammar separator: del vs dies

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: del is acontraction and diesanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

del is recorded at frequency rank #1,706, classified as acontraction. dies is at rank #34,236, tagged as anoun.

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 35942, this pair ranks #30,988 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of del vs dies

Shared letters: de. Private to "del": l. Private to "dies": is.

"del" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "dies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diesddies · deis · diess · ides

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "del" for "dies" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "del" is a contraction and "dies" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "del" or "dies"?
"del" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,706 in our Portuguese list, against #34,236 for "dies". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "del" vs "dies" 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 "dies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,988 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "del" and "dies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dies vs dink". 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 #30,988 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