Which to use
“na” is a contraction and “nam” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17
- “na” frequency rank
- #18,396
- “nam” frequency rank
- 18413
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | na | nam |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | contração da preposição em com o artigo definido a: | caso dativo do pronome pessoal my |
Letter map: na vs nam
Shared letters muted; letters that set na and nam apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: na vs nam
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: na is acontraction and namapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “na” sits inside “nam”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
na is recorded at frequency rank #17, classified as acontraction, pronounced /nɐ/. 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 18413, this pair ranks #52,574 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of na vs nam
Shared letters: an. Private to "na": -. Private to "nam": m.
"na" · 2 letters · shape CV · "nam" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "na" and "nam" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "na" vs "nam" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "na" vs "nam" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "na" 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 #52,574 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "na" and "nam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nam vs nami". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #52,574 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.