diz vs du, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“diz” is a verb and “du” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#156
“diz” frequency rank: #5,187
“du” frequency rank: 5343
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	diz	du
Definition	terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo dizer	você, tu

Where the eye mixes diz and du

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

diz

2 ch

Why the eye confuses diz with du

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: diz is /ˈʤis/ while du is /du:/ ouvir^(fonte ?). 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 (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

diz is recorded at frequency rank #156, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈʤis/. du is at rank #5,187, tagged as apron, pronounced /du:/ ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 5343, this pair ranks #69,293 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of diz vs du

Shared letters: d. Private to "diz": iz. Private to "du": u.

"diz" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "du" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "diz" and "du" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "diz" is a verb and "du" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "diz" or "du" show up more?

"diz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #156 in our Portuguese list, against #5,187 for "du". 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 "diz" and "du" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "diz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "du" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #69,293 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"diz" and "du" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs du". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #69,293 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.