devervsdeviTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#3,068
“dever” frequency rank
#47,301
“devi” frequency rank
50369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dever devi
Definition obrigação dever, ter obrigação de, ter que

Where the eye mixes dever and devi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dever
4 ch
devi

Why the eye confuses dever with devi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dever is /dɨ.ˈveɾ/ while devi is /ˈde.vi/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dever is recorded at frequency rank #3,068, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɨ.ˈveɾ/. devi is at rank #47,301, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈde.vi/.

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 50369, this pair ranks #14,603 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dever vs devi

Shared letters: dev. Private to "dever": r. Private to "devi": i.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deverddever · deevr · deverr · devre · devver · dveer · edver
  • deviddevi · deiv · devvi · dvei · edvi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dever" for "devi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dever" is a noun and "devi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dever" or "devi"?
"dever" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,068 in our Portuguese list, against #47,301 for "devi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "dever" and "devi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dever" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,603 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dever" and "devi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devi vs device". 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 #14,603 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