lavsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: la is a pronoun, is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“la” is a pronoun and “ló” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#163
“la” frequency rank
#37,407
“ló” frequency rank
37570
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature la
Definition mesmo que a, utilizado em ênclise com verbos que terminam em -z, -r ou -s lado de uma embarcação que fica exposto ao vento

Letter map: la vs ló

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

2 ch
la
2 ch
ló

Grammar separator: la vs ló

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: la is apronoun and anoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “la” becomes ó in “ló”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37570, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

la is recorded at frequency rank #163, classified as apron. is at rank #37,407, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɔ/.

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 37570, this pair ranks #29,019 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of la vs ló

Shared letters: l. Private to "la": a. Private to "ló": ó.

"la" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "ló" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "la" and "ló" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "la" is a pronoun and "ló" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "la" vs "ló" - which ranks higher?
"la" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #163 in our Portuguese list, against #37,407 for "ló". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "la" and "ló". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "la" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ló" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,019 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "la" and "ló" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ló vs loch". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #29,019 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list