lá
Portuguese, noun
lá is spelled L-Á (2 letters) and appears 617 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 147th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Lá is a Portuguese masculine noun meaning “la (sixth note of a major scale, in solfège)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). Without its accent, la is a different word: “alternative form of a (third-person feminine singular objective…”. With a tilde, lã is a different word: “wool (wavy fur of sheep and other animals)”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “sexta nota musical da escala de dó maior”.
What does lá mean in English?
adverb
- 1
there (in that place, far from both the speaker and the audience)
Minha casa fica lá.
- 2
used with an adverb phrase to indicate that something is far
O Santo Graal está lá no topo do castelo.
- 3
used to emphasize a relative distant point in the past or in the future
Os portugueses chegaram ao Brazil lá no século XV (quinze).
- 4
informalthat; particularly (to a significant extent)
Para andorinhas, carregar cocos não é lá tão difícil.
- 5
informaleven (expresses intensified disagreement with a previous sentence)
E ele lá entende o que você diz?
noun
- 1
masculinela (sixth note of a major scale, in solfège)
interjection
- 1
meaningless syllable used in joyful singing
Trá-lá-lá-lá-lá.
pronoun
- 1
alternative form of a (third-person feminine singular objective pronoun) used as an enclitic and mesoclitic following a verb form ending in a consonant (-z, -r and -s, but not -m); the consonant is elided and the preceding vowel takes an accent if necessary
noun
- 1
femininewool (wavy fur of sheep and other animals)
- 2
femininefarm
- 3
femininefluff
- 4
femininefrizzy hair
- 5
feminineshyness
- 6
femininewealth
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
noun: 1. pelo espesso, frisado e macio que cobre o corpo de certos animais, especialmente carneiros e ovelhas 2. fio feito com esta pelagem 3. tecido produzido com este fio
article: 1. a
pronoun: 1. mesmo que a, utilizado em ênclise com verbos que terminam em -z, -r ou -s
adverb: 1. naquele lugar 2. neste tempo
noun: 1. sexta nota musical da escala de dó maior
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of lá
- lãs plural
- là alternative obsolete
- lâ alternative obsolete
- lás plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to lá
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is lá in Portuguese?
lá appears 617 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).