dadavsdatTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,089
“dada” frequency rank
#49,908
“dat” frequency rank
51997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dada dat
Definition embora aquele; pronome neutro que se refere a algo ou alguém distante de quem fala

Letter map: dada vs dat

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

4 ch
dada
3 ch
dat

Part-of-speech tell for dada / dat

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dada is anadverb and datapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dada is recorded at frequency rank #2,089, classified as anadv. dat is at rank #49,908, tagged as apron, pronounced [dɑt].

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 51997, this pair ranks #13,122 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dada vs dat

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dada": -. Private to "dat": t.

"dada" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dat" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dadaadda · daad · dadda · ddaa · ddada

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dada" and "dat" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dada" is an adverb and "dat" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dada" or "dat" show up more?
"dada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,089 in our Portuguese list, against #49,908 for "dat". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "dada" vs "dat" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,122 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dada" and "dat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damo 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 #13,122 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