lar vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,089
“lar” frequency rank: #34,790
“lui” frequency rank: 37879
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lar	lui
Definition	residência, habitação	alugar (tomar de aluguel)

Where the eye mixes lar and lui

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

3 ch

lar

3 ch

lui

Visual trap between lar and lui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lar is /ˈlaɾ/ while lui is /ˈlu.i/.. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lar is recorded at frequency rank #3,089, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaɾ/. 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 37879, this pair ranks #28,672 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lar vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "lar": ar. Private to "lui": iu.

"lar" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lar" and "lui" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "lar" or "lui"?

"lar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,089 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "lar" 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 #28,672 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lar" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ludo vs lui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #28,672 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.