dissevsdistoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#176
“disse” frequency rank
#3,761
“disto” frequency rank
3937
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature disse disto
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo dizer contração da preposição de com o pronome demonstrativo isto:

Letter map: disse vs disto

Shared letters muted; letters that set disse and disto apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. disse and disto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
disse
5 ch
disto

Role in the sentence - disse and disto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: disse is averb and distoacontraction. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

disse is recorded at frequency rank #176, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʤi.se]. disto is at rank #3,761, tagged as acontraction.

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 3937, this pair ranks #71,129 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of disse vs disto

Shared letters: dis. Private to "disse": e. Private to "disto": ot.

"disse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "disto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • disse ← ddisse · dise · dises · dsise · idsse
  • disto ← ddisto · disot · dissto · distto · ditso · dsito · idsto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "disse" and "disto" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "disse" is a verb and "disto" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "disse" or "disto"?
"disse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #176 in our Portuguese list, against #3,761 for "disto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "disse" vs "disto" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "disse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "disto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,129 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "disse" and "disto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "disto vs dit". 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 #71,129 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