doentevsdondeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,318
“doente” frequency rank
#13,273
“donde” frequency rank
15591
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doente donde
Definition que tem a saúde alterada pelo que; daí se conclui:

Letter map: doente vs donde

Shared letters muted; letters that set doente and donde apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. doente runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against donde's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
doente
5 ch
donde

Grammar separator: doente vs donde

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: doente is anadjective and dondeanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doente is recorded at frequency rank #2,318, classified as anadj. donde is at rank #13,273, tagged as anadv.

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 15591, this pair ranks #56,187 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of doente vs donde

Shared letters: deno. Private to "doente": t. Private to "donde": -.

"doente" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "donde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doente ← ddoente · deonte · doenet · doennte · doentte · doetne · donete · odente
  • donde ← ddonde · dnode · dodne · dondde · doned · donnde · odnde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "doente" and "donde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "doente" is an adjective and "donde" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "doente" or "donde" show up more?
"doente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,318 in our Portuguese list, against #13,273 for "donde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "doente" and "donde".

  • Full dictionary entry for "doente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,187 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doente" and "donde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dodo vs donde". 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 #56,187 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