um vs uns, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“um” and “uns” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12
“um” frequency rank: #485
“uns” frequency rank: 497
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	um	uns
Definition	qualquer	alguns; certas pessoas

Letter map: um vs uns

Shared letters muted; letters that set um and uns apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

uns

Pair insight - um / uns

um and uns are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 497, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

um is recorded at frequency rank #12, classified as anarticle, pronounced /ũw/. uns is at rank #485, tagged as anarticle.

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 497, this pair ranks #75,167 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of um vs uns

Shared letters: u. Private to "um": m. Private to "uns": ns.

"um" · 2 letters · shape VC · "uns" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "um" and "uns" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "um" or "uns"?

"um" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12 in our Portuguese list, against #485 for "uns". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "um" and "uns". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "um" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "uns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #75,167 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"um" and "uns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "uns vs unser". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #75,167 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.