namvsnavyConfusable pair

Quick tell: nam is a pronoun, navy is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#18,396
“nam” frequency rank
#29,843
“navy” frequency rank
48239
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nam navy
Definition caso dativo do pronome pessoal my azul escuro, azul-marinho

Letter map: nam vs navy

Shared letters muted; letters that set nam and navy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. nam runs 3 letters (CVC) against navy's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
nam
4 ch
navy

Part-of-speech tell for nam / navy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nam is apronoun and navyanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nam is recorded at frequency rank #18,396, classified as apron. navy is at rank #29,843, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈneɪvi/.

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 48239, this pair ranks #16,960 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nam vs navy

Shared letters: an. Private to "nam": m. Private to "navy": vy.

"nam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "navy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • navy ← anvy · navvy · navyy · nayv · nnavy · nvay

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nam" for "navy" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nam" is a pronoun and "navy" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nam" or "navy"?
"nam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,396 in our Portuguese list, against #29,843 for "navy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "navy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,960 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nam" and "navy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nami vs navy". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #16,960 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list