n vs nun, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#585
“n” frequency rank: #39,280
“nun” frequency rank: 39865
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	n	nun
Definition	não	agora, neste momento:

Letter map: n vs nun

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

1 ch

3 ch

nun

Pair insight - n / nun

n and nun are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “n” sits inside “nun”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

n is recorded at frequency rank #585, classified as anadv. nun is at rank #39,280, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈnuːn/.

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 39865, this pair ranks #26,327 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of n vs nun

Shared letters: n. Private to "n": -. Private to "nun": u.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “n” sits inside “nun”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

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

"n" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #585 in our Portuguese list, against #39,280 for "nun". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "n" and "nun". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "n" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #26,327 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"n" and "nun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noon vs nun". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #26,327 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.