nau vs nun, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#17,867
“nau” frequency rank: #39,280
“nun” frequency rank: 57147
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nau	nun
Definition	grande embarcação de guerra ou mercante, de tipo antigo	agora, neste momento:

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set nau and nun apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

nau

3 ch

nun

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nau is /ˈnaw/ while nun is /ˈnuːn/. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nau is recorded at frequency rank #17,867, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈnaw/. nun is at rank #39,280, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈnuːn/.

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 57147, this pair ranks #9,512 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nau vs nun

Shared letters: nu. Private to "nau": a. Private to "nun": -.

"nau" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "nun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

nau#17,867

nun#39,280

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Which is more common, "nau" or "nun"?

"nau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,867 in our Portuguese list, against #39,280 for "nun". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering nau vs nun

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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