n vs nur, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#585
“n” frequency rank: #35,702
“nur” frequency rank: 36287
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	n	nur
Definition	não	apenas, somente, meramente

Letter map: n vs nur

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

1 ch

3 ch

nur

Pair insight - n / nur

n and nur 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 “nur”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36287, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

n is recorded at frequency rank #585, classified as anadv. nur is at rank #35,702, tagged as anadv, pronounced /nuːɐ̯/.

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 36287, this pair ranks #30,566 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of n vs nur

Shared letters: n. Private to "n": -. Private to "nur": ru.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "n" or "nur" show up more?

"n" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #585 in our Portuguese list, against #35,702 for "nur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "n" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #30,566 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"n" and "nur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Nauru vs nur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,566 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.