le vs ler, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“le” is an article and “ler” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,016
“le” frequency rank: #648
“ler” frequency rank: 2664
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	le	ler
Definition	partícula gramatical usada antes de substantivos ou palavras substantivadas; por geral indica uma coisa em particular	interpretar o que está escrito

Letter map: le vs ler

Shared letters muted; letters that set le and ler apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch

3 ch

ler

Role in the sentence - le and ler

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: le is anarticle and leraverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “le” sits inside “ler”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2664, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

le is recorded at frequency rank #2,016, classified as anarticle. ler is at rank #648, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈleɾ/.

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 2664, this pair ranks #72,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of le vs ler

Shared letters: el. Private to "le": -. Private to "ler": r.

"le" · 2 letters · shape CV · "ler" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "le" and "ler" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "le" or "ler"?

"ler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #648 in our Portuguese list, against #2,016 for "le". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "le" and "ler".

Full dictionary entry for "le" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #72,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"le" and "ler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "le vs Lied". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #72,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.