no vs nos, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“no” and “nos” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15
“no” frequency rank: #42
“nos” frequency rank: 57
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	no	nos
Definition	forma enclítica do pronome o quando precedido de forma verbal terminada em som nasal	a nós

Letter map: no vs nos

Shared letters muted; letters that set no and nos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch

3 ch

nos

Spelling & dictionary notes on no vs nos

no and nos are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “no” sits inside “nos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

no is recorded at frequency rank #15, classified as apron. 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 57, this pair ranks #75,593 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of no vs nos

Shared letters: no. Private to "no": -. Private to "nos": s.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "no" and "nos" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “no” sits inside “nos”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "no" or "nos"?

"no" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15 in our Portuguese list, against #42 for "nos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "no" vs "nos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "no" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #75,593 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"no" and "nos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noon vs nos". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #75,593 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.