las vs lau, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#852
“las” frequency rank: #21,230
“lau” frequency rank: 22082
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	las	lau
Definition	as, pronome demonstrativo	morno, tépido:

Letter map: las vs lau

Shared letters muted; letters that set las and lau apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

las

3 ch

lau

Grammar separator: las vs lau

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: las is apronoun and lauanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - s in “las” becomes u in “lau”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

las is recorded at frequency rank #852, 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 22082, this pair ranks #48,038 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of las vs lau

Shared letters: al. Private to "las": s. Private to "lau": u.

"las" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "las" and "lau" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "las" or "lau"?

"las" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #852 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.

What to do next

Pair "las" vs "lau" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "las" 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 #48,038 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"las" and "lau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs lau". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #48,038 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.