latavslateConfusable pair

Quick tell: lata is a noun, late is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,442
“lata” frequency rank
#12,276
“late” frequency rank
18718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lata late
Definition folha de ferro laminada e estanhada terceira pessoa do presente do indicativo do verbo latir

Letter map: lata vs late

Shared letters muted; letters that set lata and late apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
lata
4 ch
late

Role in the sentence - lata and late

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lata is anoun and lateaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “lata” becomes e in “late”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lata is recorded at frequency rank #6,442, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈla.tɐ/. late is at rank #12,276, tagged as averb.

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 18718, this pair ranks #52,194 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lata vs late

Shared letters: alt. Private to "lata": -. Private to "late": e.

"lata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • latalaat · latta · llata · ltaa
  • latealte · laet · latte · llate · ltae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lata" and "late" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lata" is a noun and "late" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lata" or "late" show up more?
"lata" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,442 in our Portuguese list, against #12,276 for "late". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "lata" vs "late" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "late" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,194 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lata" and "late" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs late". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #52,194 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