l vs lau, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“l” is a pronoun and “lau” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,147
“l” frequency rank: #21,230
“lau” frequency rank: 22377
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	l	lau
Definition	o, pronome demonstrativo	morno, tépido:

Letter map: l vs lau

Shared letters muted; letters that set l and lau apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch

3 ch

lau

Grammar separator: l vs lau

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: l is apronoun and lauanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “l” sits inside “lau”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

l is recorded at frequency rank #1,147, classified as apron. lau is at rank #21,230, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlaʊ̯/.

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 22377, this pair ranks #47,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of l vs lau

Shared letters: l. Private to "l": -. Private to "lau": au.

"l" · 1 letters · shape C · "lau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "l" for "lau" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "l" is a pronoun and "lau" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "l" or "lau" show up more?

"l" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,147 in our Portuguese list, against #21,230 for "lau". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "l" and "lau".

Full dictionary entry for "l" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #47,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"l" and "lau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs lau". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #47,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.