la vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#163
“la” frequency rank: #34,790
“lui” frequency rank: 34953
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	la	lui
Definition	mesmo que a, utilizado em ênclise com verbos que terminam em -z, -r ou -s	alugar (tomar de aluguel)

Letter map: la vs lui

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

2 ch

3 ch

lui

Grammar separator: la vs lui

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: la is apronoun and luiaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34953, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

la is recorded at frequency rank #163, classified as apron. lui is at rank #34,790, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈlu.i/..

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 34953, this pair ranks #32,192 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of la vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "la": a. Private to "lui": iu.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Frequency check: "la" vs "lui" - which ranks higher?

"la" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #163 in our Portuguese list, against #34,790 for "lui". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "la" 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 #32,192 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"la" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ludo vs lui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #32,192 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.