nessa vs névoa, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“nessa” is a contraction and “névoa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#524
“nessa” frequency rank: #22,103
“névoa” frequency rank: 22627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nessa	névoa
Definition	contração da preposição em com o pronome demonstrativo essa	nevoeiro pouco denso

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

nessa

5 ch

névoa

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nessa is /ˈnɛ.sɐ/ while névoa is /ˈnɛ.vwɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nessa is recorded at frequency rank #524, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈnɛ.sɐ/. névoa is at rank #22,103, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈnɛ.vwɐ/.

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 22627, this pair ranks #47,370 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nessa vs névoa

Shared letters: an. Private to "nessa": es. Private to "névoa": ové.

"nessa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "névoa" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

nessa ← enssa · nesa · nesas · nnessa · nsesa

Frequency comparison

nessa#524

névoa#22,103

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nessa" and "névoa" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nessa" is a contraction and "névoa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "nessa" or "névoa"?

"nessa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #524 in our Portuguese list, against #22,103 for "névoa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering nessa vs névoa

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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