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 eye mixes neck and nem
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. neck runs 4 letters (CVCC) against nem's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses neck with nem
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
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "neck" and "nem" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "neck" or "nem" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "neck" and "nem" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "neck" 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 #24,685 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "neck" and "nem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "neck vs nena". 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 #24,685 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.