navsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: na is a contraction, is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“na” is a contraction and “né” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17
“na” frequency rank
#1,856
“né” frequency rank
1873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature na
Definition contração da preposição em com o artigo definido a: particípio passado do verbo naitre

Letter map: na vs né

Shared letters muted; letters that set na and apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
na
2 ch
né

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: na is acontraction and averb. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “na” becomes é in “né”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

na is recorded at frequency rank #17, classified as acontraction, pronounced /nɐ/. is at rank #1,856, tagged as averb.

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 1873, this pair ranks #73,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of na vs né

Shared letters: n. Private to "na": a. Private to "né": é.

"na" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "né" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "na" and "né" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "na" is a contraction and "né" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "na" or "né"?
"na" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17 in our Portuguese list, against #1,856 for "né". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list