namivsnemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nami is a pronoun, nem is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#44,009
“nami” frequency rank
#121
“nem” frequency rank
44130
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nami nem
Definition caso instrumental do pronome pessoal my não

Letter map: nami vs nem

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

4 ch
nami
3 ch
nem

Role in the sentence - nami and nem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nami is apronoun and nemanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44130, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nami is recorded at frequency rank #44,009, classified as apron. nem is at rank #121, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈnɐ̃j̃/.

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 44130, this pair ranks #21,406 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nami vs nem

Shared letters: mn. Private to "nami": ai. Private to "nem": e.

"nami" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nem" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nami" and "nem" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nami" is a pronoun and "nem" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nami" or "nem"?
"nem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #121 in our Portuguese list, against #44,009 for "nami". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "nami" and "nem".

  • Full dictionary entry for "nami" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,406 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nami" and "nem" 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 #21,406 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