lervsletoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#648
“ler” frequency rank
#33,915
“leto” frequency rank
34563
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ler leto
Definition interpretar o que está escrito verão:

Letter map: ler vs leto

Shared letters muted; letters that set ler and leto apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. ler runs 3 letters (CVC) against leto's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
ler
4 ch
leto

Grammar separator: ler vs leto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ler is averb and letoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34563, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ler is recorded at frequency rank #648, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈleɾ/. leto is at rank #33,915, tagged as anoun.

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 34563, this pair ranks #32,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ler vs leto

Shared letters: el. Private to "ler": r. Private to "leto": ot.

"ler" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "leto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leto ← elto · leot · letto · lleto · lteo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ler" and "leto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ler" is a verb and "leto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ler" or "leto"?
"ler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #648 in our Portuguese list, against #33,915 for "leto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ler" and "leto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leto vs ludo". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #32,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list