qui vs quilo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#9,094
“qui” frequency rank: #14,216
“quilo” frequency rank: 23310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	qui	quilo
Definition	que relativo; o qual, a qual, os quais, as quais	quilograma

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set qui and quilo apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

qui

5 ch

quilo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: qui is /Ki/ while quilo is /ˈki.lu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “qui” sits inside “quilo”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

qui is recorded at frequency rank #9,094, classified as apron, pronounced /Ki/. quilo is at rank #14,216, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈki.lu/.

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 23310, this pair ranks #46,534 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of qui vs quilo

Shared letters: iqu. Private to "qui": -. Private to "quilo": lo.

"qui" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "quilo" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

quilo ← qiulo · qquilo · quillo · quiol · qulio · uqilo

Frequency comparison

qui#9,094

quilo#14,216

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "qui" and "quilo" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "qui" or "quilo"?

"qui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,094 in our Portuguese list, against #14,216 for "quilo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering qui vs quilo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “qui”; for a noun, it's “quilo”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “qui” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable