Which to use
“late” is a verb and “lie” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,276
- “late” frequency rank
- #31,038
- “lie” frequency rank
- 43314
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | late | lie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | terceira pessoa do presente do indicativo do verbo latir | mentira |
Letter map: late vs lie
Shared letters muted; letters that set late and lie apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for late / lie
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: late is averb and lieanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43314, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
late is recorded at frequency rank #12,276, classified as averb. lie is at rank #31,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaɪ/.
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 43314, this pair ranks #22,337 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of late vs lie
Shared letters: el. Private to "late": at. Private to "lie": i.
"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lie" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- late ← alte · laet · latte · llate · ltae
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "late" for "lie" ever safe?
Which is more common, "late" or "lie"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "late" and "lie".
- Full dictionary entry for "late" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #22,337 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "late" and "lie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lie vs Lied". 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 #22,337 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.