não vs nau, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“não” is an adverb and “nau” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11
“não” frequency rank: #17,867
“nau” frequency rank: 17878
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	não	nau
Definition	usado para negar verbos e adjetivos	grande embarcação de guerra ou mercante, de tipo antigo

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set não and nau apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

não

3 ch

nau

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: não is /ˈnɐ̃w̃/ while nau is /ˈnaw/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

não is recorded at frequency rank #11, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈnɐ̃w̃/. nau is at rank #17,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈnaw/.

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 17878, this pair ranks #53,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of não vs nau

Shared letters: n. Private to "não": oã. Private to "nau": au.

"não" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "nau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

não#11

nau#17,867

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "não" and "nau" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "não" is an adverb and "nau" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "não" or "nau"?

"não" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11 in our Portuguese list, against #17,867 for "nau". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering não vs nau

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “não”; for a noun, it's “nau”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “não” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable