le vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,016
“le” frequency rank: #34,790
“lui” frequency rank: 36806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	le	lui
Definition	partícula gramatical usada antes de substantivos ou palavras substantivadas; por geral indica uma coisa em particular	alugar (tomar de aluguel)

Letter map: le vs lui

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

2 ch

3 ch

lui

Role in the sentence - le and lui

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: le is anarticle and luiaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

le is recorded at frequency rank #2,016, classified as anarticle. lui is at rank #34,790, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈlu.i/..

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 36806, this pair ranks #29,929 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of le vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "le": e. Private to "lui": iu.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"le" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,016 in our Portuguese list, against #34,790 for "lui". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "le" vs "lui" 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 "lui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #29,929 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"le" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ludo vs lui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #29,929 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.