denvsdizWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: den is a article, diz is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“den” is an article and “diz” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,112
“den” frequency rank
#156
“diz” frequency rank
19268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature den diz
Definition o, artigo definido masculino do caso acusativo singular: terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo dizer

Where the eye mixes den and diz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
den
3 ch
diz

Visual trap between den and diz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: den is /deːn/ ouvir^(fonte ?) while diz is /ˈʤis/. 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 (article vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

den is recorded at frequency rank #19,112, classified as anarticle, pronounced /deːn/ ouvir^(fonte ?). diz is at rank #156, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈʤis/.

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 19268, this pair ranks #51,507 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of den vs diz

Shared letters: d. Private to "den": en. Private to "diz": iz.

"den" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "diz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "den" and "diz" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "den" is an article and "diz" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "den" vs "diz" - which ranks higher?
"diz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #156 in our Portuguese list, against #19,112 for "den". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "den" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "diz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,507 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "den" and "diz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs den". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #51,507 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