nadievsnadoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nadie is a pronoun, nado is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nadie” is a pronoun and “nado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,952
“nadie” frequency rank
#20,371
“nado” frequency rank
66323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nadie nado
Definition ninguém nascido, nato

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set nadie and nado apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
nadie
4 ch
nado

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nadie is /ˈna.dje/ while nado is /ˈna.du/. 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 (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nadie is recorded at frequency rank #45,952, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈna.dje/. nado is at rank #20,371, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈna.du/.

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 66323, this pair ranks #5,036 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nadie vs nado

Shared letters: adn. Private to "nadie": ei. Private to "nado": o.

"nadie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "nado" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nadieandie · naddie · nadei · naide · ndaie · nnadie
  • nadoando · naddo · naod · ndao · nnado

Frequency comparison

nadie#45,952
nado#20,371

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nadie" and "nado" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nadie" is a pronoun and "nado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nadie" or "nado"?
"nado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,371 in our Portuguese list, against #45,952 for "nadie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering nadie vs nado

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “nadie”; for an adjective, it's “nado”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “nadie” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list