lucavsluiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: luca is a noun, lui is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#17,068
“luca” frequency rank
#34,790
“lui” frequency rank
51858
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luca lui
Definition o mesmo que carta do baralho alugar (tomar de aluguel)

Where the eye mixes luca and lui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. luca runs 4 letters (CVCV) against lui's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
luca
3 ch
lui

Visual trap between luca and lui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: luca is /ˈlu.kɐ/ 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 51858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

luca is recorded at frequency rank #17,068, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlu.kɐ/. 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 51858, this pair ranks #13,246 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of luca vs lui

Shared letters: lu. Private to "luca": ac. Private to "lui": i.

"luca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • luca ← lcua · lluca · luac · lucca · ulca

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "luca" and "lui" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "luca" is a noun and "lui" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "luca" or "lui"?
"luca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,068 in our Portuguese list, against #34,790 for "lui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "luca" 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 #13,246 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "luca" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ludo vs lui". 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 #13,246 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