kdevskiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: kde is a adverb, ki is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kde” is an adverb and “ki” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,708
“kde” frequency rank
#10,029
“ki” frequency rank
49737
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kde ki
Definition onde cão (mamífero domesticado - Canis lupus familiaris)

Letter map: kde vs ki

Shared letters muted; letters that set kde and ki apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. kde runs 3 letters (CCV) against ki's 2 (CV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
kde
2 ch
ki

Role in the sentence - kde and ki

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kde is anadverb and kianoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49737, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kde is recorded at frequency rank #39,708, classified as anadv. ki is at rank #10,029, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkiː/.

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 49737, this pair ranks #15,256 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of kde vs ki

Shared letters: k. Private to "kde": de. Private to "ki": i.

"kde" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "ki" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "kde" and "ki" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kde" is an adverb and "ki" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "kde" vs "ki" - which ranks higher?
"ki" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,029 in our Portuguese list, against #39,708 for "kde". 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 "kde" and "ki".

  • Full dictionary entry for "kde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ki" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,256 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kde" and "ki" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "K7 vs kde". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #15,256 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