latevslatirWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#12,276
“late” frequency rank
#38,344
“latir” frequency rank
50620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature late latir
Definition terceira pessoa do presente do indicativo do verbo latir o mesmo que latido

Letter map: late vs latir

Shared letters muted; letters that set late and latir apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. late runs 4 letters (CVCV) against latir's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
late
5 ch
latir

Part-of-speech tell for late / latir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: late is averb and latiranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

late is recorded at frequency rank #12,276, classified as averb. latir is at rank #38,344, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɐ.ˈtiɾ/.

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 50620, this pair ranks #14,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of late vs latir

Shared letters: alt. Private to "late": e. Private to "latir": ir.

"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "latir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • late ← alte · laet · latte · llate · ltae
  • latir ← altir · laitr · latirr · latri · lattir · llatir · ltair

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "late" for "latir" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "late" is a verb and "latir" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "late" or "latir"?
"late" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,276 in our Portuguese list, against #38,344 for "latir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "late" and "latir". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "late" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "latir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "late" and "latir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "latido vs latir". 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 #14,339 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