lui vs luz, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#34,790
“lui” frequency rank: #604
“luz” frequency rank: 35394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lui	luz
Definition	alugar (tomar de aluguel)	única radiação captada pelo olho humano

Where the eye mixes lui and luz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

lui

3 ch

luz

Why the eye confuses lui with luz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lui is /ˈlu.i/. while luz is /ˈluʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “lui” becomes z in “luz”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lui is recorded at frequency rank #34,790, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈlu.i/.. luz is at rank #604, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈluʃ/.

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 35394, this pair ranks #31,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lui vs luz

Shared letters: lu. Private to "lui": i. Private to "luz": z.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"luz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #604 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lui" and "luz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "lui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "luz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #31,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lui" and "luz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ludo vs lui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,668 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.