nous vs nur, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#31,892
“nous” frequency rank: #35,702
“nur” frequency rank: 67594
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nous	nur
Definition	nós, nos, pronome pessoal da primeira pessoa do plural.	apenas, somente, meramente

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set nous and nur apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

nous

3 ch

nur

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nous is /nu/ while nur is /nuːɐ̯/. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67594, 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/. 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 67594, this pair ranks #4,578 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nous vs nur

Shared letters: nu. Private to "nous": os. Private to "nur": r.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

nous ← nnous · nosu · nouss · nuos · onus

Frequency comparison

nous#31,892

nur#35,702

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nous" and "nur" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "nous" or "nur"?

"nous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,892 in our Portuguese list, against #35,702 for "nur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering nous vs nur

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “nous”; for an adverb, it's “nur”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “nous” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable