luivsluisConfusable pair

Quick tell: lui is a pronoun, luis is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lui” is a pronoun and “luis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,056
“lui” frequency rank
#10,126
“luis” frequency rank
54182
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lui luis
Definition er Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs lui

Where the eye mixes lui and luis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
lui
4 ch
luis

Why the eye confuses lui with luis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lui is [lɥi] while luis is [ˈluis]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “lui” sits inside “luis”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lui is recorded at frequency rank #44,056, classified as apron, pronounced [lɥi]. luis is at rank #10,126, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈluis].

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 54182, this pair ranks #1,028,934 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lui vs luis

Shared letters: ilu. Private to "lui": -. Private to "luis": s.

"lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "luis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • luislius · lluis · luiss · lusi · ulis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lui" and "luis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lui" is a pronoun and "luis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "lui" or "luis" show up more?
"luis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,126 in our German list, against #44,056 for "lui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lui" and "luis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,028,934 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lui" and "luis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lori vs lui". 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 #1,028,934 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list