der vs dun, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#1,567
“der” frequency rank: #45,320
“dun” frequency rank: 46887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	der	dun
Definition	primeira pessoa do singular do futuro do conjuntivo/subjuntivo do verbo dar	penugem imatura em pássaros jovens

Where the eye mixes der and dun

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

3 ch

der

3 ch

dun

Look-alike desk: der vs dun

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: der is /dɛɾ/, /dɛ/ while dun is /duːn/, [d̥uːˀn]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46887, 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/. dun is at rank #45,320, tagged as anoun, pronounced /duːn/, [d̥uːˀn].

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 46887, this pair ranks #18,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of der vs dun

Shared letters: d. Private to "der": er. Private to "dun": nu.

"der" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "der" for "dun" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "der" or "dun" show up more?

"der" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,567 in our Portuguese list, against #45,320 for "dun". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "der" and "dun" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "der" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "dun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #18,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"der" and "dun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dun". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.