nãovsnataWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#41,506
“não” frequency rank
#19,184
“nata” frequency rank
60690
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature não nata
Definition No. Capa cremosa que se forma encima de la leche, ya sea por dejarla en reposo o por hervirla y luego dejarla enfriar.

Where the eye mixes não and nata

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. não runs 3 letters (CVV) against nata's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
não
4 ch
nata

Look-alike desk: não vs nata

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: não is [nɐ̃w] while nata is [ˈnat̪a]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60690, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

não is recorded at frequency rank #41,506, classified as anadv, pronounced [nɐ̃w]. nata is at rank #19,184, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈnat̪a].

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 60690, this pair ranks #58,079 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of não vs nata

Shared letters: n. Private to "não": oã. Private to "nata": at.

"não" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "nata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nata ← naat · natta · nnata · ntaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "não" and "nata" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "não" is an adverb and "nata" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "não" or "nata" show up more?
"nata" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,184 in our Spanish list, against #41,506 for "não". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "não" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,079 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "não" and "nata" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "não 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 #58,079 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