nu vs num, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#5,663
“nu” frequency rank: #234
“num” frequency rank: 5897
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nu	num
Definition	despido, em pelo, sem roupas	o mesmo que não

Letter map: nu vs num

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

2 ch

3 ch

num

Grammar separator: nu vs num

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nu is anadjective and numanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “nu” sits inside “num”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nu is recorded at frequency rank #5,663, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈnu/. 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 5897, this pair ranks #68,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nu vs num

Shared letters: nu. Private to "nu": -. Private to "num": m.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nu" for "num" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "nu" or "num" show up more?

"num" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #234 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

Pair "nu" vs "num" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "nu" 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 #68,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nu" and "num" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nu vs null". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #68,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.