Which to use
“desde” is a preposition and “disse” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #155
- “desde” frequency rank
- #176
- “disse” frequency rank
- 331
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | desde | disse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | a começar de; a partir de | primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo dizer |
Where the eye mixes desde and disse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses desde with disse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desde is /ˈdeʒ.dɨ/ while disse is [ˈʤi.se]. 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 (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
desde is recorded at frequency rank #155, classified as aprep, pronounced /ˈdeʒ.dɨ/. disse is at rank #176, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʤi.se].
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 331, this pair ranks #75,304 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of desde vs disse
Shared letters: des. Private to "desde": -. Private to "disse": i.
"desde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "disse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "desde" for "disse" ever safe?
Frequency check: "desde" vs "disse" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "desde" and "disse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "desde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "disse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #75,304 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "desde" and "disse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "decade vs desde". 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 #75,304 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.