lau vs ls, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#21,230
“lau” frequency rank: #27,923
“ls” frequency rank: 49153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lau	ls
Definition	morno, tépido:	os, artigo definido masculino plural:

Letter map: lau vs ls

Shared letters muted; letters that set lau and ls apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

lau

2 ch

Role in the sentence - lau and ls

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lau is anadjective and lsanarticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lau is recorded at frequency rank #21,230, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlaʊ̯/. ls is at rank #27,923, tagged as anarticle.

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 49153, this pair ranks #15,924 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lau vs ls

Shared letters: l. Private to "lau": au. Private to "ls": s.

"lau" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "ls" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lau" for "ls" ever safe?

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

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

"lau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,230 in our Portuguese list, against #27,923 for "ls". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "lau" and "ls". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "lau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #15,924 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lau" and "ls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs lau". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #15,924 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.