devevsdeverConfusable pair

Quick tell: deve is a verb, dever is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deve” is a verb and “dever” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#182
“deve” frequency rank
#3,068
“dever” frequency rank
3250
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deve dever
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo dever obrigação

Letter map: deve vs dever

Shared letters muted; letters that set deve and dever apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
deve
5 ch
dever

Role in the sentence - deve and dever

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: deve is averb and deveranoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “deve” sits inside “dever”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deve is recorded at frequency rank #182, classified as averb. dever is at rank #3,068, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɨ.ˈveɾ/.

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 3250, this pair ranks #71,928 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deve vs dever

Shared letters: dev. Private to "deve": -. Private to "dever": r.

"deve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deveddeve · deev · devve · dvee · edve
  • deverddever · deevr · deverr · devre · devver · dveer · edver

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "deve" and "dever" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deve" is a verb and "dever" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "deve" or "dever"?
"deve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #182 in our Portuguese list, against #3,068 for "dever". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "deve" and "dever".

  • Full dictionary entry for "deve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dever" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,928 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deve" and "dever" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dever vs devi". 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 #71,928 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