Which to use
“né” is a verb and “nu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,856
- “né” frequency rank
- #5,663
- “nu” frequency rank
- 7519
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | né | nu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | particípio passado do verbo naitre | despido, em pelo, sem roupas |
Letter map: né vs nu
Shared letters muted; letters that set né and nu apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Role in the sentence - né and nu
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: né is averb and nuanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - é in “né” becomes u in “nu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
né is recorded at frequency rank #1,856, classified as averb. nu is at rank #5,663, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈnu/.
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 7519, this pair ranks #66,599 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of né vs nu
Shared letters: n. Private to "né": é. Private to "nu": u.
"né" · 2 letters · shape CV · "nu" · 2 letters · shape CV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "né" for "nu" ever safe?
Which is more common, "né" or "nu"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "né" and "nu".
- Full dictionary entry for "né" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #66,599 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "né" and "nu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nu vs null". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #66,599 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.