lo vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#19
“lo” frequency rank: #36,659
“lui” frequency rank: 36678
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lo	lui
Definition	Artículo determinado de género neutro que se usa para sustantivar adjetivos o frases. Forma del neutro de el.	Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de luir.

Where the eye mixes lo and lui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

lui

Look-alike desk: lo vs lui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lo is [lo] while lui is [ˈlwi]. 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 (article vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36678, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lo is recorded at frequency rank #19, classified as anarticle, pronounced [lo]. lui is at rank #36,659, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlwi].

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 36678, this pair ranks #179,388 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lo vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "lo": o. Private to "lui": iu.

"lo" · 2 letters · shape CV · "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lo" for "lui" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Spanish text, does "lo" or "lui" show up more?

"lo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our Spanish list, against #36,659 for "lui". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "lo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #179,388 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lo" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lac vs lui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #179,388 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.