vsjadeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#41
“já” frequency rank
#10,913
“jade” frequency rank
10954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jade
Definition imediatamente pedra ornamental muito dura e compacta, variando na cor, de esbranquiçada a verde-escura, é formada pela associação da jadeíta e da nefrita; muito utilizada na fabricação de estatuetas e peças de adorno pessoal

Where the eye mixes já and jade

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
já
4 ch
jade

Why the eye confuses já with jade

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: is /ˈʒa/ while jade is /ˈʒa.dɨ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 10954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is recorded at frequency rank #41, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈʒa/. jade is at rank #10,913, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʒa.dɨ/.

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 10954, this pair ranks #62,004 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of já vs jade

Shared letters: j. Private to "já": á. Private to "jade": ade.

"já" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "jade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jadeajde · jadde · jaed · jdae · jjade

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "já" for "jade" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "já" is an adverb and "jade" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "já" vs "jade" - which ranks higher?
"já" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41 in our Portuguese list, against #10,913 for "jade". 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 "já" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,004 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "já" and "jade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jade vs jed". 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 #62,004 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