desse vs desuso, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“desse” is a contraction and “desuso” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#391
“desse” frequency rank: #28,938
“desuso” frequency rank: 29329
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	desse	desuso
Definition	contração da preposição de com o pronome ou determinante demonstrativo esse:	primeira pessoa do singular do presente indicativo do verbo desusar

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set desse and desuso apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

desse

6 ch

desuso

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desse is /ˈde.sɨ/ while desuso is /dɨ.ˈzu.zu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desse is recorded at frequency rank #391, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.sɨ/. desuso is at rank #28,938, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɨ.ˈzu.zu/.

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 29329, this pair ranks #39,343 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of desse vs desuso

Shared letters: des. Private to "desse": -. Private to "desuso": ou.

"desse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "desuso" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

desse ← ddesse · dese · deses · dsese · edsse
desuso ← ddesuso · dessuo · dessuso · desuos · desusso · deusso · dseuso · edsuso

Frequency comparison

desse#391

desuso#28,938

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "desse" and "desuso" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "desse" or "desuso"?

"desse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #391 in our Portuguese list, against #28,938 for "desuso". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering desse vs desuso

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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