PortionvsPositionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,924
“Portion” frequency rank
#1,239
“Position” frequency rank
10163
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Portion Position
Definition bestimmte Menge Ort, Standort

Where the eye mixes Portion and Position

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Portion
8 ch
Position

Visual trap between Portion and Position

A purely visual mix-up. Portion ([pɔʁˈt͡si̯oːn]) and Position ([poziˈt͡si̯oːn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Portion is recorded at frequency rank #8,924, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɔʁˈt͡si̯oːn]. Position is at rank #1,239, tagged as anoun, pronounced [poziˈt͡si̯oːn].

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 10163, this pair ranks #1,976,487 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Portion vs Position

Shared letters: inopt. Private to "Portion": r. Private to "Position": s.

"Portion" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "Position" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Portionoprtion · poriton · porrtion · portino · portionn · portoin · porttion · potrion
  • Positionopsition · poistion · posiiton · positino · positionn · positoin · posittion · possition

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Portion" for "Position" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɔʁˈt͡si̯oːn] versus [poziˈt͡si̯oːn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Portion" or "Position" show up more?
"Position" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,239 in our German list, against #8,924 for "Portion". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Portion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Position" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,976,487 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Portion" and "Position" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Portion vs Portionen". 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 #1,976,487 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