Which to use
“na” is a contraction and “não” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17
- “na” frequency rank
- #11
- “não” frequency rank
- 28
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | na | não |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | contração da preposição em com o artigo definido a: | usado para negar verbos e adjetivos |
Where the eye mixes na and não
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: na is /nɐ/ while não is /ˈnɐ̃w̃/. 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 (contraction vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
na is recorded at frequency rank #17, classified as acontraction, pronounced /nɐ/. não is at rank #11, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈnɐ̃w̃/.
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 28, this pair ranks #75,619 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of na vs não
Shared letters: n. Private to "na": a. Private to "não": oã.
"na" · 2 letters · shape CV · "não" · 3 letters · shape CVV