lervslhesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#648
“ler” frequency rank
#1,095
“lhes” frequency rank
1743
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ler lhes
Definition interpretar o que está escrito pronome pessoal dativo, de dois gêneros, da terceira pessoa do plural (eles, elas, vocês)

Letter map: ler vs lhes

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

3 ch
ler
4 ch
lhes

Part-of-speech tell for ler / lhes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ler is averb and lhesapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ler is recorded at frequency rank #648, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈleɾ/. lhes is at rank #1,095, tagged as apron.

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 1743, this pair ranks #73,767 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ler vs lhes

Shared letters: el. Private to "ler": r. Private to "lhes": hs.

"ler" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lhes" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lhes ← hles · lehs · lhess · lhhes · lhse · llhes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ler" and "lhes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ler" is a verb and "lhes" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ler" or "lhes"?
"ler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #648 in our Portuguese list, against #1,095 for "lhes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "ler" vs "lhes" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lhes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,767 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ler" and "lhes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lhes vs Lied". 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 #73,767 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