legvsluiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: leg is a noun, lui is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#33,059
“leg” frequency rank
#34,790
“lui” frequency rank
67849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leg lui
Definition perna alugar (tomar de aluguel)

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set leg and lui apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
leg
3 ch
lui

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leg is /lɛɡ/ while lui is /ˈlu.i/.. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leg is recorded at frequency rank #33,059, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɛɡ/. 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 67849, this pair ranks #4,470 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leg vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "leg": eg. Private to "lui": iu.

"leg" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

leg#33,059
lui#34,790

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leg" and "lui" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leg" is a noun and "lui" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leg" or "lui"?
"leg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,059 in our Portuguese list, against #34,790 for "lui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering leg vs lui

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “leg”; for a verb, it's “lui”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “leg” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list