menosvsmenúWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: menos is a adverb, menú is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“menos” is an adverb and “menú” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#109
“menos” frequency rank
#9,322
“menú” frequency rank
9431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature menos menú
Definition Comparativo irregular de poco, que indica disminución o inferioridad. Colección de alimentos que se incluyen en una comida.

Where the eye mixes menos and menú

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
menos
4 ch
menú

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: menos is [ˈmenos] while menú is [meˈnu]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

menos is recorded at frequency rank #109, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈmenos]. menú is at rank #9,322, tagged as anoun, pronounced [meˈnu].

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 9431, this pair ranks #301,957 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of menos vs menú

Shared letters: emn. Private to "menos": os. Private to "menú": ú.

"menos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "menú" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • menosemnos · mennos · menoss · menso · meons · mmenos · mneos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "menos" and "menú" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "menos" is an adverb and "menú" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "menos" or "menú"?
"menos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #109 in our Spanish list, against #9,322 for "menú". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list