lapsovslasTell them apart

Quick tell: lapso is a noun, las is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lapso” is a noun and “las” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,604
“lapso” frequency rank
#15
“las” frequency rank
11619
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lapso las
Definition Tiempo transcurrido entre dos instancias o sucesos. Artículo determinado femenino plural. Antecede a sustantivos femeninos en plural denotando que estos deben tomarse como información general consabida.

Where the eye mixes lapso and las

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

5 ch
lapso
3 ch
las

Why the eye confuses lapso with las

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lapso is [ˈlapso] while las is [las]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lapso is recorded at frequency rank #11,604, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlapso]. las is at rank #15, tagged as anarticle, pronounced [las].

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 11619, this pair ranks #294,456 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lapso vs las

Shared letters: als. Private to "lapso": op. Private to "las": -.

"lapso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "las" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lapsoalpso · lapos · lappso · lapsso · laspo · llapso · lpaso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lapso" for "las" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lapso" is a noun and "las" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "lapso" or "las" show up more?
"las" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15 in our Spanish list, against #11,604 for "lapso". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lapso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "las" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #294,456 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lapso" and "las" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lapa vs lapso". 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 #294,456 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list