new vs no, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“new” is an adjective and “no” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,338
“new” frequency rank: #15
“no” frequency rank: 1353
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	new	no
Definition	novo:	forma enclítica do pronome o quando precedido de forma verbal terminada em som nasal

Letter map: new vs no

Shared letters muted; letters that set new and no apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

new

2 ch

Grammar separator: new vs no

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: new is anadjective and noapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

new is recorded at frequency rank #1,338, classified as anadj, pronounced /nuː/. no is at rank #15, tagged as apron.

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 1353, this pair ranks #74,230 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of new vs no

Shared letters: n. Private to "new": ew. Private to "no": o.

"new" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "no" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "new" for "no" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "new" is an adjective and "no" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "new" or "no" show up more?

"no" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15 in our Portuguese list, against #1,338 for "new". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "new" and "no". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "new" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "no" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #74,230 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"new" and "no" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "no vs noon". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #74,230 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.