Which to use
“lah” is a noun and “last” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,894
- “lah” frequency rank
- #141
- “last” frequency rank
- 45035
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lah | last |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Alternative spelling of la. | Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind. |
Where the eye mixes lah and last
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lah is /lɑː/ while last is /lɑːst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lah is recorded at frequency rank #44,894, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɑː/. last is at rank #141, tagged as anadj, pronounced /lɑːst/.
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 45035, this pair ranks #225,044 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lah vs last
Shared letters: al. Private to "lah": h. Private to "last": st.
"lah" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "last" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- last ← alst · lasst · lastt · lats · llast