dervsdeviWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“der” and “devi” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,567
“der” frequency rank
#47,301
“devi” frequency rank
48868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature der devi
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do futuro do conjuntivo/subjuntivo do verbo dar dever, ter obrigação de, ter que

Where the eye mixes der and devi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
der
4 ch
devi

Visual trap between der and devi

A purely visual mix-up. der (/dɛɾ/, /dɛ/) and devi (/ˈde.vi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

der is recorded at frequency rank #1,567, classified as averb, pronounced /dɛɾ/, /dɛ/. devi is at rank #47,301, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈde.vi/.

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 48868, this pair ranks #16,260 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of der vs devi

Shared letters: de. Private to "der": r. Private to "devi": iv.

"der" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "devi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deviddevi · deiv · devvi · dvei · edvi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "der" for "devi" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/dɛɾ/, /dɛ/ versus /ˈde.vi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "der" or "devi"?
"der" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,567 in our Portuguese list, against #47,301 for "devi". 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 "der" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,260 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "der" and "devi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devi vs device". 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 #16,260 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