duavsduplaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dua is a verb, dupla is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dua” is a verb and “dupla” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,112
“dua” frequency rank
#2,139
“dupla” frequency rank
41251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dua dupla
Definition querer grupo de duas pessoas que atuam conjuntamente

Letter map: dua vs dupla

Shared letters muted; letters that set dua and dupla apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. dua runs 3 letters (CVV) against dupla's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
dua
5 ch
dupla

Grammar separator: dua vs dupla

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dua is averb and duplaanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dua is recorded at frequency rank #39,112, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdwa/. dupla is at rank #2,139, tagged as anoun.

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 41251, this pair ranks #24,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dua vs dupla

Shared letters: adu. Private to "dua": -. Private to "dupla": lp.

"dua" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "dupla" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dupla ← ddupla · dpula · dulpa · dupal · duplla · duppla · udpla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dua" for "dupla" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dua" is a verb and "dupla" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dua" or "dupla" show up more?
"dupla" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,139 in our Portuguese list, against #39,112 for "dua". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "dua" and "dupla". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dupla" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dua" and "dupla" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dua". 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 #24,707 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