nadovsnahWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“nado” and “nah” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,371
“nado” frequency rank
#26,820
“nah” frequency rank
47191
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nado nah
Definition nascido, nato perto

Where the eye mixes nado and nah

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. nado runs 4 letters (CVCV) against nah's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
nado
3 ch
nah

Look-alike desk: nado vs nah

A purely visual mix-up. nado (/ˈna.du/) and nah (/naː/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nado is recorded at frequency rank #20,371, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈna.du/. nah is at rank #26,820, tagged as anadj, pronounced /naː/ ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 47191, this pair ranks #18,083 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nado vs nah

Shared letters: an. Private to "nado": do. Private to "nah": h.

"nado" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nah" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nado ← ando · naddo · naod · ndao · nnado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nado" and "nah" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈna.du/ versus /naː/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "nado" or "nah"?
"nado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,371 in our Portuguese list, against #26,820 for "nah". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "nado" and "nah" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,083 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nado" and "nah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nah vs nami". 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 #18,083 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