ló vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37,407
“ló” frequency rank: #34,790
“lui” frequency rank: 72197
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ló	lui
Definition	lado de uma embarcação que fica exposto ao vento	alugar (tomar de aluguel)

Where the eye mixes ló and lui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

ló

3 ch

lui

Look-alike desk: ló vs lui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ló is /ˈlɔ/ while lui is /ˈlu.i/.. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ló is recorded at frequency rank #37,407, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɔ/. 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 72197, this pair ranks #3,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ló vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "ló": ó. Private to "lui": iu.

"ló" · 2 letters · shape CV · "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ló" for "lui" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ló" or "lui" show up more?

"lui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,790 in our Portuguese list, against #37,407 for "ló". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "ló" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #3,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ló" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ló vs loch". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.