dele vs dire, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#261
“dele” frequency rank: #27,835
“dire” frequency rank: 28096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dele	dire
Definition	contração da preposição de com o pronome pessoal ele	dizer, falar

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set dele and dire apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

dele

4 ch

dire

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dele is /ˈde.lɨ/ while dire is /diʁ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dele is recorded at frequency rank #261, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.lɨ/. dire is at rank #27,835, tagged as averb, pronounced /diʁ/.

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 28096, this pair ranks #40,767 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dele vs dire

Shared letters: de. Private to "dele": l. Private to "dire": ir.

"dele" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

dele ← ddele · deel · delle · dlee · edle
dire ← ddire · dier · dirre · drie · idre

Frequency comparison

dele#261

dire#27,835

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dele" and "dire" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "dele" or "dire"?

"dele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #261 in our Portuguese list, against #27,835 for "dire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering dele vs dire

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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