cadavscausaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#144
“cada” frequency rank
#340
“causa” frequency rank
484
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cada causa
Definition indica, individualizando, um elemento de um grupo ou conjunto: aquilo ou aquele que ocasiona um acontecimento ou faz que uma coisa exista

Where the eye mixes cada and causa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cada
5 ch
causa

Look-alike desk: cada vs causa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cada is /ˈkɐ.dɐ/ while causa is /ˈkaw.zɐ/. 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 484, 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/. causa is at rank #340, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaw.zɐ/.

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 484, this pair ranks #75,177 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cada vs causa

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cada": d. Private to "causa": su.

"cada" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "causa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadaacda · caad · cadda · ccada · cdaa
  • causaacusa · casua · cauas · caussa · ccausa · cuasa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cada" and "causa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cada" is a pronoun and "causa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cada" or "causa" show up more?
"cada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #144 in our Portuguese list, against #340 for "causa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "causa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,177 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cada" and "causa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cada vs cerda". 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 #75,177 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