despesa vs dessa, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“despesa” is a noun and “dessa” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,784
“despesa” frequency rank: #375
“dessa” frequency rank: 16159
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	despesa	dessa
Definition	ato ou efeito de despender	contração da preposição de com o pronome ou determinante demonstrativo feminino essa:

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set despesa and dessa apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

despesa

5 ch

dessa

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: despesa is /dɨʃ.ˈpe.zɐ/ while dessa is /ˈdɛ.sɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

despesa is recorded at frequency rank #15,784, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɨʃ.ˈpe.zɐ/. dessa is at rank #375, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /ˈdɛ.sɐ/.

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 16159, this pair ranks #55,450 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of despesa vs dessa

Shared letters: ades. Private to "despesa": p. Private to "dessa": -.

"despesa" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "dessa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

despesa ← ddespesa · depsesa · desepsa · despeas · despessa · desppesa · despsea · desspesa
dessa ← ddessa · desa · desas · dsesa · edssa

Frequency comparison

despesa#15,784

dessa#375

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "despesa" and "dessa" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "despesa" or "dessa"?

"dessa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #375 in our Portuguese list, against #15,784 for "despesa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering despesa vs dessa

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “despesa”; for a contraction, it's “dessa”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “despesa” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable