portavsposteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“porta” and “poste” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,373
“porta” frequency rank
#13,669
“poste” frequency rank
34042
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature porta poste
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ historisches Perfekt Aktiv des Verbs porter 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs posen

Where the eye mixes porta and poste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
porta
5 ch
poste

Look-alike desk: porta vs poste

A purely visual mix-up. porta ([pɔʁ.ta]) and poste ([ˈpoːstə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

porta is recorded at frequency rank #20,373, classified as averb, pronounced [pɔʁ.ta]. poste is at rank #13,669, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpoːstə].

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 34042, this pair ranks #1,672,283 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of porta vs poste

Shared letters: opt. Private to "porta": ar. Private to "poste": es.

"porta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "poste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portaoprta · porat · porrta · portta · potra · pporta · prota
  • posteopste · poset · posste · potse · pposte · psote

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "porta" for "poste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɔʁ.ta] versus [ˈpoːstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "porta" or "poste"?
"poste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,669 in our German list, against #20,373 for "porta". 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 "porta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,672,283 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "porta" and "poste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plata vs porta". 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 #1,672,283 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list