destevsdeterConfusable pair

Quick tell: deste is a contraction, deter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#346
“deste” frequency rank
#5,519
“deter” frequency rank
5865
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deste deter
Definition contração da preposição de com o pronome ou determinante demonstrativo este: proceder à detenção; prender; reter à força

Letter map: deste vs deter

Shared letters muted; letters that set deste and deter apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
deste
5 ch
deter

Part-of-speech tell for deste / deter

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: deste is acontraction and deteraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deste is recorded at frequency rank #346, classified as acontraction. deter is at rank #5,519, tagged as averb.

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 5865, this pair ranks #68,679 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deste vs deter

Shared letters: det. Private to "deste": s. Private to "deter": r.

"deste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "deter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desteddeste · deset · desste · destte · detse · dsete · edste
  • deterddeter · deetr · deterr · detre · detter · dteer · edter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deste" and "deter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deste" is a contraction and "deter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "deste" or "deter"?
"deste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #346 in our Portuguese list, against #5,519 for "deter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "deste" and "deter".

  • Full dictionary entry for "deste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,679 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deste" and "deter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deter vs detox". 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 #68,679 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list