dobrevsdobrouTell them apart

Quick tell: dobre is a adverb, dobrou is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dobre” is an adverb and “dobrou” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,519
“dobre” frequency rank
#21,432
“dobrou” frequency rank
51951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dobre dobrou
Definition bem acusativo feminino singular de dobrý

Letter map: dobre vs dobrou

Shared letters muted; letters that set dobre and dobrou apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
dobre
6 ch
dobrou

Role in the sentence - dobre and dobrou

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dobre is anadverb and dobrouanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51951, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dobre is recorded at frequency rank #30,519, classified as anadv, pronounced ˈdɔbrɛ/. dobrou is at rank #21,432, tagged as anadj.

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 51951, this pair ranks #13,160 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dobre vs dobrou

Shared letters: bdor. Private to "dobre": e. Private to "dobrou": u.

"dobre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dobrou" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dobredbore · ddobre · dobbre · dober · dobrre · dorbe · odbre
  • dobroudborou · ddobrou · dobbrou · doboru · dobrrou · dobruo · dorbou · odbrou

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dobre" for "dobrou" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dobre" is an adverb and "dobrou" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dobre" or "dobrou" show up more?
"dobrou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,432 in our Portuguese list, against #30,519 for "dobre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "dobre" and "dobrou". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dobre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dobrou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,160 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dobre" and "dobrou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dare vs dobre". 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 #13,160 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