nous vs num, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#31,892
“nous” frequency rank: #234
“num” frequency rank: 32126
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nous	num
Definition	nós, nos, pronome pessoal da primeira pessoa do plural.	o mesmo que não

Letter map: nous vs num

Shared letters muted; letters that set nous and num apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

nous

3 ch

num

Grammar separator: nous vs num

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nous is apronoun and numanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nous is recorded at frequency rank #31,892, classified as apron, pronounced /nu/. num is at rank #234, tagged as anadv.

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 32126, this pair ranks #35,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nous vs num

Shared letters: nu. Private to "nous": os. Private to "num": m.

"nous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "num" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

nous ← nnous · nosu · nouss · nuos · onus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nous" and "num" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Frequency check: "nous" vs "num" - which ranks higher?

"num" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #234 in our Portuguese list, against #31,892 for "nous". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "nous" and "num". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "nous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "num" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #35,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nous" and "num" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noon vs nous". Nearby pair
Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #35,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.