le vs lhe, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,016
“le” frequency rank: #322
“lhe” frequency rank: 2338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	le	lhe
Definition	partícula gramatical usada antes de substantivos ou palavras substantivadas; por geral indica uma coisa em particular	pronome pessoal dativo, de dois gêneros, da terceira pessoa do singular (ele, ela, você)

Letter map: le vs lhe

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

2 ch

3 ch

lhe

Grammar separator: le vs lhe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: le is anarticle and lheapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

le is recorded at frequency rank #2,016, classified as anarticle. lhe is at rank #322, tagged as apron, pronounced /ʎɨ/.

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 2338, this pair ranks #73,071 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of le vs lhe

Shared letters: el. Private to "le": -. Private to "lhe": h.

"le" · 2 letters · shape CV · "lhe" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Frequency check: "le" vs "lhe" - which ranks higher?

"lhe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #322 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 "lhe".

Full dictionary entry for "le" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lhe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #73,071 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"le" and "lhe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "le vs Lied". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,071 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.