las vs los, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“las” and “los” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#852
“las” frequency rank: #394
“los” frequency rank: 1246
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	las	los
Definition	as, pronome demonstrativo	os, pronome demonstrativo

Letter map: las vs los

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

3 ch

las

3 ch

los

Corpus notes: las and los

las and los are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “las” becomes o in “los”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

las is recorded at frequency rank #852, classified as apron. los is at rank #394, tagged as apron.

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 1246, this pair ranks #74,349 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of las vs los

Shared letters: ls. Private to "las": a. Private to "los": o.

"las" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "los" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "las" for "los" ever safe?

No. They differ by a single letter - a in “las” becomes o in “los”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "las" or "los" show up more?

"los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #394 in our Portuguese list, against #852 for "las". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "las" and "los". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "las" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #74,349 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"las" and "los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loch vs los". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #74,349 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.