dela vs doula, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#295
“dela” frequency rank: #48,371
“doula” frequency rank: 48666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dela	doula
Definition	contração da preposição de e do pronome ela	mulher que dá suporte físico e emocional a outras mulheres antes, durante e após o parto

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set dela and doula apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

dela

5 ch

doula

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dela is /ˈde.lɐ/ while doula is /ˈdow.lɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dela is recorded at frequency rank #295, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.lɐ/. doula is at rank #48,371, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdow.lɐ/.

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 48666, this pair ranks #16,498 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dela vs doula

Shared letters: adl. Private to "dela": e. Private to "doula": ou.

"dela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "doula" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

dela ← ddela · deal · della · dlea · edla
doula ← ddoula · dolua · doual · doulla · duola · odula

Frequency comparison

dela#295

doula#48,371

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dela" and "doula" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dela" is a contraction and "doula" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "dela" or "doula"?

"dela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #295 in our Portuguese list, against #48,371 for "doula". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering dela vs doula

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a contraction, it's “dela”; for a noun, it's “doula”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “dela” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable