lhe vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#322
“lhe” frequency rank: #34,790
“lui” frequency rank: 35112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lhe	lui
Definition	pronome pessoal dativo, de dois gêneros, da terceira pessoa do singular (ele, ela, você)	alugar (tomar de aluguel)

Where the spellings diverge

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

3 ch

lhe

3 ch

lui

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lhe is /ʎɨ/ 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 (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lhe is recorded at frequency rank #322, classified as apron, pronounced /ʎɨ/. 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 35112, this pair ranks #31,989 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lhe vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "lhe": eh. Private to "lui": iu.

"lhe" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

lhe#322

lui#34,790

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Which is more common, "lhe" or "lui"?

"lhe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #322 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.

Remembering lhe vs lui

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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