cadavscapWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#144
“cada” frequency rank
#7,259
“cap” frequency rank
7403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cada cap
Definition indica, individualizando, um elemento de um grupo ou conjunto: bode ou carneiro, especialmente velho ou castrado

Where the eye mixes cada and cap

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

4 ch
cada
3 ch
cap

Why the eye confuses cada with cap

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cada is /ˈkɐ.dɐ/ while cap is /t͡sap/. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cada is recorded at frequency rank #144, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈkɐ.dɐ/. cap is at rank #7,259, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡sap/.

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 7403, this pair ranks #66,735 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cada vs cap

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cada": d. Private to "cap": p.

"cada" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cap" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadaacda · caad · cadda · ccada · cdaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cada" and "cap" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cada" is a pronoun and "cap" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cada" or "cap" show up more?
"cada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #144 in our Portuguese list, against #7,259 for "cap". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cap" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,735 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cada" and "cap" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cap vs chau". 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 #66,735 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