los vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#394
“los” frequency rank: #34,790
“lui” frequency rank: 35184
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	los	lui
Definition	os, pronome demonstrativo	alugar (tomar de aluguel)

Letter map: los vs lui

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

3 ch

los

3 ch

lui

Grammar separator: los vs lui

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: los is apronoun and luiaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

los is recorded at frequency rank #394, classified as apron. 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 35184, this pair ranks #31,898 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of los vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "los": os. Private to "lui": iu.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "los" for "lui" ever safe?

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

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

"los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #394 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.

After this comparison

Pair "los" vs "lui" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "los" 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 #31,898 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"los" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ludo vs lui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,898 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.