lievslosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lie is a noun, los is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lie” is a noun and “los” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,038
“lie” frequency rank
#394
“los” frequency rank
31432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lie los
Definition mentira os, pronome demonstrativo

Letter map: lie vs los

Shared letters muted; letters that set lie and los apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
lie
3 ch
los

Role in the sentence - lie and los

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lie is anoun and losapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lie is recorded at frequency rank #31,038, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaɪ/. los is at rank #394, 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 31432, this pair ranks #36,650 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lie vs los

Shared letters: l. Private to "lie": ei. Private to "los": os.

"lie" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "los" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lie" and "los" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lie" is a noun and "los" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lie" vs "los" - which ranks higher?
"los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #394 in our Portuguese list, against #31,038 for "lie". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "lie" and "los". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,650 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lie" and "los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lie vs Lied". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #36,650 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