portavsportónWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,734
“porta” frequency rank
#21,795
“portón” frequency rank
32529
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature porta portón
Definition Cada una de las aberturas, a modo de ventanas, que se practican en los costados y en la popa de los buques, para dar luz y ventilación al interior de los mismos, para verificar su carga y descarga y muy principalmente para el juego de la artillería. Aumentativo de puerta.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set porta and portón apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
porta
6 ch
portón

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. porta ([ˈpoɾt̪a]) and portón ([poɾˈt̪õn]) 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 32529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

porta is recorded at frequency rank #10,734, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpoɾt̪a]. portón is at rank #21,795, tagged as anoun, pronounced [poɾˈt̪õn].

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 32529, this pair ranks #201,500 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of porta vs portón

Shared letters: oprt. Private to "porta": a. Private to "portón": .

"porta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "portón" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portaoprta · porat · porrta · portta · potra · pporta · prota

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "porta" and "portón" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpoɾt̪a] versus [poɾˈt̪õn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "porta" or "portón"?
"porta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,734 in our Spanish list, against #21,795 for "portón". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list