Cada and Cada Uno (Each, Every) | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Cada is refreshingly simple: it never changes form. Masculine, feminine, singular, plural — it's always cada. It means each or every, and it always appears directly before a noun (usually singular) with no article between them.

The One and Only Form

There is no cadas, cado, or cada(s). One word, one spelling, always.

Cada persona tiene su propia historia.

Each person has their own story.

Cada día aprendo algo nuevo.

Every day I learn something new.

Unlike todo, there is no article between cada and its noun. You say cada día, not cada el día.

Cada Uno / Cada Una

When you want each one as a standalone pronoun, use cada uno (masculine) or cada una (feminine).

Hay cinco estudiantes, y cada uno tiene un libro.

There are five students, and each one has a book.

Las manzanas cuestan diez pesos cada una.

The apples cost ten pesos each.

The second example shows a very common pattern: cada una at the end of a sentence to say each or apiece.

Every X Days / Every X Weeks

To say every two days, every three weeks, every ten minutes, Spanish uses cada + number + plural noun. This is one of the few times cada is paired with a plural noun.

Voy al gimnasio cada dos días.

I go to the gym every two days.

El autobús pasa cada diez minutos.

The bus comes every ten minutes.

Pattern	Meaning
cada día	every day
cada dos días	every other day / every two days
cada tres horas	every three hours
cada quince días	every two weeks
cada mes	every month

Notice cada quince días — literally every fifteen days — is the most natural way to say every two weeks or fortnightly in Latin American Spanish.

Cada vs. Todos

Both cada and todos los can sometimes translate as every, but they have different feels.

todos los días = every day (emphasizes the set — all of them)
cada día = every day, each day (emphasizes individuality — one after another)

For routine actions, Latin Americans almost always prefer todos los días, todas las semanas. For distributive or emphatic meaning (each separate one), cada is the right choice.

Cada estudiante recibió un certificado diferente.

Each student received a different certificate.

Todos los estudiantes recibieron un certificado.

All the students received a certificate.

Cada Vez Más / Cada Vez Menos

A beautiful idiom: cada vez más (more and more) and cada vez menos (less and less).

Hace cada vez más calor en el verano.

It's getting hotter and hotter in the summer.

Hay cada vez menos tiempo para relajarse.

There's less and less time to relax.

Fixed Expressions

cada cual — each one (emphatic, often in proverbs)
de cada — out of every (in statistics: siete de cada diez = seven out of every ten)
cada tanto — every so often
cada quién (Mexico, Central America) — each person, everyone

Cada quién tiene sus gustos.

Everyone has their own tastes.

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Be careful: cada is almost always followed by a singular noun. The one exception is cada + number, where the noun is plural (cada tres semanas). Outside of that, say cada día, not cada días.

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The phrase cada quién is a distinctly Mexican/Central American variant of cada cual. Both mean each person, but cada quién is more common in everyday Mexican Spanish while cada cual sounds more literary.

Cada is one of the easiest determiners to master precisely because it never changes. Learn the three patterns — cada + noun, cada uno, and cada + number + plural — and you're set.