n vs nam, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“n” is an adverb and “nam” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#585
“n” frequency rank: #18,396
“nam” frequency rank: 18981
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	n	nam
Definition	não	caso dativo do pronome pessoal my

Letter map: n vs nam

Shared letters muted; letters that set n and nam apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch

3 ch

nam

Part-of-speech tell for n / nam

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: n is anadverb and namapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “n” sits inside “nam”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

n is recorded at frequency rank #585, classified as anadv. nam is at rank #18,396, tagged as apron.

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 18981, this pair ranks #51,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of n vs nam

Shared letters: n. Private to "n": -. Private to "nam": am.

"n" · 1 letters · shape C · "nam" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "n" and "nam" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "n" is an adverb and "nam" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "n" or "nam"?

"n" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #585 in our Portuguese list, against #18,396 for "nam". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "n" and "nam".

Full dictionary entry for "n" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #51,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"n" and "nam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nam vs nami". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #51,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.