dellvsdeveTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#19,394
“dell” frequency rank
#182
“deve” frequency rank
19576
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dell deve
Definition vale terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo dever

Letter map: dell vs deve

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

4 ch
dell
4 ch
deve

Part-of-speech tell for dell / deve

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dell is anoun and deveaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dell is recorded at frequency rank #19,394, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɛl/. 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 19576, this pair ranks #51,103 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dell vs deve

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

"dell" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "deve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dellddell · dlel · edll
  • deveddeve · deev · devve · dvee · edve

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dell" and "deve" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dell" is a noun and "deve" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dell" vs "deve" - which ranks higher?
"deve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #182 in our Portuguese list, against #19,394 for "dell". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dell" and "deve".

  • Full dictionary entry for "dell" 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 #51,103 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dell" and "deve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dell vs devi". 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 #51,103 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