newsvsnosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: news is a noun, nos is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“news” is a noun and “nos” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,965
“news” frequency rank
#42
“nos” frequency rank
3007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature news nos
Definition novidade; notícia a nós

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
news
3 ch
nos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: news is /n(j)uːz/, enPR: n(y)o͞oz while nos is /ˈnuʃ/. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

news is recorded at frequency rank #2,965, classified as anoun, pronounced /n(j)uːz/, enPR: n(y)o͞oz. nos is at rank #42, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈnuʃ/.

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 3007, this pair ranks #72,206 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of news vs nos

Shared letters: ns. Private to "news": ew. Private to "nos": o.

"news" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • newsenws · nesw · newss · newws · nnews · nwes

Frequency comparison

news#2,965
nos#42

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "news" and "nos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "news" is a noun and "nos" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "news" or "nos"?
"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42 in our Portuguese list, against #2,965 for "news". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering news vs nos

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list