Which to use
“desse” is a contraction and “disse” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #391
- “desse” frequency rank
- #176
- “disse” frequency rank
- 567
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | desse | disse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | contração da preposição de com o pronome ou determinante demonstrativo esse: | primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo dizer |
Where the eye mixes desse and disse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. desse and disse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: desse vs disse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desse is /ˈde.sɨ/ while disse is [ˈʤi.se]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “desse” becomes i in “disse”, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 567, 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/. 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 567, this pair ranks #75,106 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of desse vs disse
Shared letters: des. Private to "desse": -. Private to "disse": i.
"desse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "disse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "desse" and "disse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "desse" vs "disse" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "desse" 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 #75,106 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "desse" and "disse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "disse vs dize". 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 #75,106 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.