nos vs noz, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#42
“nos” frequency rank: #22,733
“noz” frequency rank: 22775
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nos	noz
Definition	a nós	o fruto (drupa) da nogueira de miolo muito apreciado

Where the eye mixes nos and noz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

nos

3 ch

noz

Why the eye confuses nos with noz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nos is /ˈnuʃ/ while noz is /ˈnɔʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “nos” becomes z in “noz”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nos is recorded at frequency rank #42, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈnuʃ/. noz is at rank #22,733, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈnɔʃ/.

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 22775, this pair ranks #47,178 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nos vs noz

Shared letters: no. Private to "nos": s. Private to "noz": z.

"nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "noz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nos" for "noz" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "nos" or "noz" show up more?

"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42 in our Portuguese list, against #22,733 for "noz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "nos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "noz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #47,178 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nos" and "noz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noon vs noz". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #47,178 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.