dadavsdaíTell them apart

Quick tell: dada is a adverb, daí is a contraction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dada” is an adverb and “daí” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,089
“dada” frequency rank
#1,387
“daí” frequency rank
3476
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dada daí
Definition embora contração da preposição de com o advérbio de lugar aí:

Letter map: dada vs daí

Shared letters muted; letters that set dada and daí apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
dada
3 ch
daí

Part-of-speech tell for dada / daí

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dada is anadverb and daíacontraction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3476, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dada is recorded at frequency rank #2,089, classified as anadv. daí is at rank #1,387, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /dɐ.ˈi/.

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 3476, this pair ranks #71,676 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dada vs daí

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dada": -. Private to "daí": í.

"dada" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "daí" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dadaadda · daad · dadda · ddaa · ddada

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dada" and "daí" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dada" is an adverb and "daí" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dada" or "daí"?
"daí" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,387 in our Portuguese list, against #2,089 for "dada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dada" and "daí".

  • Full dictionary entry for "dada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "daí" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,676 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dada" and "daí" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dada vs dat". 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 #71,676 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