nadavsnotaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: nada is a pronoun, nota is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nada” is a pronoun and “nota” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#69
“nada” frequency rank
#712
“nota” frequency rank
781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nada nota
Definition Ninguna cosa. Señalización para facilitar el reconocimiento de algo o para darlo a conocer.

Where the eye mixes nada and nota

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
nada
4 ch
nota

Visual trap between nada and nota

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nada is [ˈnað̞a] while nota is [ˈnot̪a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nada is recorded at frequency rank #69, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈnað̞a]. nota is at rank #712, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈnot̪a].

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 781, this pair ranks #322,966 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nada vs nota

Shared letters: an. Private to "nada": d. Private to "nota": ot.

"nada" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nota" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nadanaad · nadda · ndaa · nnada
  • notannota · noat · notta · ntoa · onta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nada" for "nota" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nada" is a pronoun and "nota" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "nada" or "nota" show up more?
"nada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #69 in our Spanish list, against #712 for "nota". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "nada" and "nota" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nota" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #322,966 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nada" and "nota" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nota vs nox". 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 #322,966 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list