lasavslayTell them apart

Quick tell: lasa is a verb, lay is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lasa” is a verb and “lay” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,408
“lasa” frequency rank
#35,585
“lay” frequency rank
80993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lasa lay
Definition Tercera persona singular del presente de indicativo del verbo lasar. Composición poética medieval de los provenzales y de los franceses, destinada a relatar una leyenda o historia de amores, generalmente en versos cortos.

Where the eye mixes lasa and lay

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lasa
3 ch
lay

Why the eye confuses lasa with lay

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lasa is [ˈlasa] while lay is [ˈlaj]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lasa is recorded at frequency rank #45,408, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlasa]. lay is at rank #35,585, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaj].

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 80993, this pair ranks #10,962 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lasa vs lay

Shared letters: al. Private to "lasa": s. Private to "lay": y.

"lasa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lay" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lasalassa · llasa · lsaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lasa" for "lay" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lasa" is a verb and "lay" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lasa" vs "lay" - which ranks higher?
"lay" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,585 in our Spanish list, against #45,408 for "lasa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lasa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,962 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lasa" and "lay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lasa vs Lyra". 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 #10,962 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