deverasvsdeveriaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: deveras is a adverb, deveria is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deveras” is an adverb and “deveria” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,610
“deveras” frequency rank
#551
“deveria” frequency rank
23161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deveras deveria
Definition realmente; muito, em alto grau; a valer primeira pessoa do futuro do pretérito do indicativo de dever;

Where the eye mixes deveras and deveria

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. deveras (CVCVCVC) and deveria (CVCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
deveras
7 ch
deveria

Look-alike desk: deveras vs deveria

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deveras is /dɨ.ˈvɛ.ɾɐʃ/ while deveria is [de.ve.ˈɾi.a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deveras is recorded at frequency rank #22,610, classified as anadv, pronounced /dɨ.ˈvɛ.ɾɐʃ/. deveria is at rank #551, tagged as averb, pronounced [de.ve.ˈɾi.a].

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 23161, this pair ranks #46,721 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deveras vs deveria

Shared letters: aderv. Private to "deveras": s. Private to "deveria": i.

"deveras" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "deveria" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deveras ← ddeveras · deevras · devears · deverass · deverras · deversa · devreas · devveras
  • deveria ← ddeveria · deevria · deveira · deverai · deverria · devreia · devveria · dveeria

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "deveras" and "deveria" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deveras" is an adverb and "deveria" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "deveras" or "deveria" show up more?
"deveria" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #551 in our Portuguese list, against #22,610 for "deveras". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deveras" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deveria" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,721 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deveras" and "deveria" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deveras vs devorar". 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 #46,721 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