doisvsdonosWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dois is a num, donos is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dois” is a num and “donos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#109
“dois” frequency rank
#5,000
“donos” frequency rank
5109
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dois donos
Definition número equivalente a um mais um; cardinalidade de um conjunto que contenha um elemento e um outro elemento distinto; representado pelo símbolo 2 (algarismos indo-arábicos) ou II (algarismos romanos); seu feminino é duas forma plural de dono:

Where the eye mixes dois and donos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dois
5 ch
donos

Look-alike desk: dois vs donos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dois is /ˈdojʃ/ while donos is /ˈdo.nʊs/. 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 (num vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dois is recorded at frequency rank #109, classified as anum, pronounced /ˈdojʃ/. donos is at rank #5,000, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdo.nʊs/.

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 5109, this pair ranks #69,600 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dois vs donos

Shared letters: dos. Private to "dois": i. Private to "donos": n.

"dois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "donos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doisddois · dios · doiss · dosi · odis
  • donosddonos · dnoos · donnos · donoss · donso · doons · odnos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dois" and "donos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dois" is a num and "donos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dois" or "donos"?
"dois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #109 in our Portuguese list, against #5,000 for "donos". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,600 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dois" and "donos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dodo vs donos". 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 #69,600 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