nos vs nu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#42
“nos” frequency rank: #5,663
“nu” frequency rank: 5705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nos	nu
Definition	a nós	despido, em pelo, sem roupas

Where the eye mixes nos and nu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

nos

2 ch

Why the eye confuses nos with nu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nos is /ˈnuʃ/ while nu is /ˈnu/. 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 (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nos is recorded at frequency rank #42, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈnuʃ/. nu is at rank #5,663, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈnu/.

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 5705, this pair ranks #68,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nos vs nu

Shared letters: n. Private to "nos": os. Private to "nu": u.

"nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "nu" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nos" and "nu" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "nos" or "nu"?

"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42 in our Portuguese list, against #5,663 for "nu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "nos" and "nu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "nos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #68,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nos" and "nu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noon vs nos". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #68,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.