le vs lua, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,016
“le” frequency rank: #1,619
“lua” frequency rank: 3635
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	le	lua
Definition	partícula gramatical usada antes de substantivos ou palavras substantivadas; por geral indica uma coisa em particular	satélite natural da Terra, que se destaca no céu durante a noite

Letter map: le vs lua

Shared letters muted; letters that set le and lua apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

lua

Grammar separator: le vs lua

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: le is anarticle and luaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3635, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

le is recorded at frequency rank #2,016, classified as anarticle. lua is at rank #1,619, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'lua/.

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 3635, this pair ranks #71,471 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of le vs lua

Shared letters: l. Private to "le": e. Private to "lua": au.

"le" · 2 letters · shape CV · "lua" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "le" for "lua" ever safe?

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

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

"lua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,619 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.

What to do next

Pair "le" vs "lua" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "le" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #71,471 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"le" and "lua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs lua". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #71,471 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.