nulo vs num, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#18,400
“nulo” frequency rank: #234
“num” frequency rank: 18634
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nulo	num
Definition	que não existe	o mesmo que não

Letter map: nulo vs num

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

4 ch

nulo

3 ch

num

Role in the sentence - nulo and num

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nulo is anadjective and numanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18634, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nulo is recorded at frequency rank #18,400, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈnu.lu/. 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 18634, this pair ranks #52,310 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nulo vs num

Shared letters: nu. Private to "nulo": lo. Private to "num": m.

"nulo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "num" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

nulo ← nluo · nnulo · nullo · nuol · unlo

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"num" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #234 in our Portuguese list, against #18,400 for "nulo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "nulo" and "num".

Full dictionary entry for "nulo" 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 #52,310 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nulo" and "num" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "null vs nulo". 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 #52,310 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.