sadevssanaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sade is a noun, sana is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sade” is a noun and “sana” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,105
“sade” frequency rank
#30,345
“sana” frequency rank
78450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sade sana
Definition chuva feminino de sano

Letter map: sade vs sana

Shared letters muted; letters that set sade and sana apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. sade and sana follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
sade
4 ch
sana

Grammar separator: sade vs sana

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sade is anoun and sanaanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sade is recorded at frequency rank #48,105, classified as anoun. sana is at rank #30,345, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsã.nɐ/.

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 78450, this pair ranks #1,682 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sade vs sana

Shared letters: as. Private to "sade": de. Private to "sana": n.

"sade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sade ← asde · sadde · saed · sdae · ssade
  • sana ← asna · saan · sanna · snaa · ssana

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sade" and "sana" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sade" is a noun and "sana" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sade" or "sana" show up more?
"sana" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,345 in our Portuguese list, against #48,105 for "sade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "sade" and "sana". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sana" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,682 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sade" and "sana" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sade vs Sau". 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 #1,682 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