namivsneiTell them apart

Quick tell: nami is a pronoun, nei is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nami” is a pronoun and “nei” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,009
“nami” frequency rank
#27,191
“nei” frequency rank
71200
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nami nei
Definition caso instrumental do pronome pessoal my negar

Letter map: nami vs nei

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

4 ch
nami
3 ch
nei

Part-of-speech tell for nami / nei

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nami is apronoun and neiaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nami is recorded at frequency rank #44,009, classified as apron. nei is at rank #27,191, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈnɛ.i/..

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 71200, this pair ranks #3,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nami vs nei

Shared letters: in. Private to "nami": am. Private to "nei": e.

"nami" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nami ← anmi · naim · nammi · nmai · nnami

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nami" and "nei" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nami" is a pronoun and "nei" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nami" or "nei"?
"nei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,191 in our Portuguese list, against #44,009 for "nami". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "nami" vs "nei" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nami" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nami" and "nei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nadie vs nami". 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 #3,416 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