do vs dun, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“do” is a contraction and “dun” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6
“do” frequency rank: #45,320
“dun” frequency rank: 45326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	do	dun
Definition	contração da preposição de com o artigo definido o	penugem imatura em pássaros jovens

Where the eye mixes do and dun

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

2 ch

3 ch

dun

Why the eye confuses do with dun

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: do is /du/ (/do/, se enfático) while dun is /duːn/, [d̥uːˀn]. 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 (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

do is recorded at frequency rank #6, classified as acontraction, pronounced /du/ (/do/, se enfático). dun is at rank #45,320, tagged as anoun, pronounced /duːn/, [d̥uːˀn].

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 45326, this pair ranks #20,080 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of do vs dun

Shared letters: d. Private to "do": o. Private to "dun": nu.

"do" · 2 letters · shape CV · "dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "do" and "dun" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "do" is a contraction and "dun" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "do" vs "dun" - which ranks higher?

"do" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6 in our Portuguese list, against #45,320 for "dun". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "do" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "dun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #20,080 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"do" and "dun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dun". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #20,080 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.