uns vs ut, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“uns” is an article and “ut” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#485
“uns” frequency rank: #39,908
“ut” frequency rank: 40393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	uns	ut
Definition	alguns; certas pessoas	como

Letter map: uns vs ut

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

3 ch

uns

2 ch

Role in the sentence - uns and ut

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: uns is anarticle and utaconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

uns is recorded at frequency rank #485, classified as anarticle. ut is at rank #39,908, tagged as aconj.

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 40393, this pair ranks #25,736 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of uns vs ut

Shared letters: u. Private to "uns": ns. Private to "ut": t.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "uns" and "ut" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "uns" is an article and "ut" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "uns" vs "ut" - which ranks higher?

"uns" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #485 in our Portuguese list, against #39,908 for "ut". 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 "uns" and "ut".

Full dictionary entry for "uns" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #25,736 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"uns" and "ut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs ut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #25,736 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.