neck vs nem, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#41,145
“neck” frequency rank: #121
“nem” frequency rank: 41266
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	neck	nem
Definition	pescoço	não

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

neck

3 ch

nem

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: neck is /nɛk/ while nem is /ˈnɐ̃j̃/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41266, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

neck is recorded at frequency rank #41,145, classified as anoun, pronounced /nɛk/. 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 41266, this pair ranks #24,685 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of neck vs nem

Shared letters: en. Private to "neck": ck. Private to "nem": m.

"neck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "nem" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

neck ← enck · ncek · necck · neckk · nekc · nneck

Frequency comparison

neck#41,145

nem#121

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "neck" and "nem" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "neck" or "nem"?

"nem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #121 in our Portuguese list, against #41,145 for "neck". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering neck vs nem

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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