nad vs né, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#33,954
“nad” frequency rank: #1,856
“né” frequency rank: 35810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nad	né
Definition	em cima, acima de	particípio passado do verbo naitre

Letter map: nad vs né

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

3 ch

nad

2 ch

né

Grammar separator: nad vs né

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nad is apreposition and néaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35810, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nad is recorded at frequency rank #33,954, classified as aprep, pronounced /ˈnat/ ouvir^(fonte ?). né 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 35810, this pair ranks #31,156 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nad vs né

Shared letters: n. Private to "nad": ad. Private to "né": é.

"nad" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "né" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nad" and "né" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nad" is a preposition and "né" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "nad" vs "né" - which ranks higher?

"né" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,856 in our Portuguese list, against #33,954 for "nad". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "nad" and "né".

Full dictionary entry for "nad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "né" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #31,156 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nad" and "né" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nad vs nadie". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,156 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.