ni vs nom, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#8,234
“ni” frequency rank: #21,251
“nom” frequency rank: 29485
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ni	nom
Definition	nós, pronome da segunda pessoa do plural	nome

Letter map: ni vs nom

Shared letters muted; letters that set ni and nom apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

nom

Role in the sentence - ni and nom

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ni is apronoun and nomanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ni is recorded at frequency rank #8,234, classified as apron. nom is at rank #21,251, tagged as anoun.

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 29485, this pair ranks #39,133 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ni vs nom

Shared letters: n. Private to "ni": i. Private to "nom": mo.

"ni" · 2 letters · shape CV · "nom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ni" for "nom" ever safe?

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

Which is more common, "ni" or "nom"?

"ni" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,234 in our Portuguese list, against #21,251 for "nom". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "ni" vs "nom" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ni" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #39,133 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ni" and "nom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nom vs noon". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,133 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.