nosvsnurWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nos is a pronoun, nur is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#42
“nos” frequency rank
#35,702
“nur” frequency rank
35744
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nos nur
Definition a nós apenas, somente, meramente

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set nos and nur apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
nos
3 ch
nur

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nos is /ˈnuʃ/ while nur is /nuːɐ̯/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35744, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nos is recorded at frequency rank #42, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈnuʃ/. nur is at rank #35,702, tagged as anadv, pronounced /nuːɐ̯/.

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 35744, this pair ranks #31,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nos vs nur

Shared letters: n. Private to "nos": os. Private to "nur": ru.

"nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

nos#42
nur#35,702

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nos" and "nur" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nos" is a pronoun and "nur" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nos" or "nur"?
"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42 in our Portuguese list, against #35,702 for "nur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering nos vs nur

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “nos”; for an adverb, it's “nur”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “nos” 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