pourtant

\puʁ.tɑ̃\

/\puʁ.tɑ̃\/ adv

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“pourtant” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #522. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#522
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
12
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Néanmoins ; cependant ; malgré cela.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pourtant · pourtant · French

pourtant · rank #522 · 12 variants · 12 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #522
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 12 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH ouais

Nearest frequency peer: ouais (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « pourtant »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « pourtant » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

pourtant vs pouvant
75% similar
pourtant vs poussant
75% similar
pourtant vs portant
88% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for pourtant
PropertyValue
Headwordpourtant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\puʁ.tɑ̃\
Letters8
Frequency rank#522
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pourtant »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).pourtantse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « ouais » (#521), « trouvé » (#523), « mesure » (#520). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pourtant » est au #522. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around pourtant (IPA \puʁ.tɑ̃\), anadverb. Corpus frequency is #522 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Néanmoins ; cependant ; malgré cela.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for pourtant, with forms such as "opurtant", "porutant", and "pouratnt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "pouvant", "poussant", "portant", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is pourtant, spelled P-O-U-R-T-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Néanmoins ; cependant ; malgré cela.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how pourtant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Dernièrement, j’avais eu la maladresse de m’enrhumer en pleine chaleur. Voilà pourtant ce que c’est que de devenir vieux : on ne peut résister à rien.
  2. Les sulfatages précoces que beaucoup hésitaient à faire avaient pourtant l’avantage d'atteindre tous les organes de la vigne, notamment les mannes, c’est-à-dire les futurs raisins.

This word in other languages

however(English)sin embargo(Español)trotzdem(Deutsch)porém(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • opurtant
  • porutant
  • pouratnt
  • pourrtant
  • pourtannt
  • pourtantt
  • pourtatn
  • pourtnat
  • pourttant
  • poutrant
  • ppourtant
  • puortant

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pourtant - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

opurtant2porutant2pouratnt2pourrtant1pourtannt1pourtantt1pourtatn2pourtnat2
Edit distance from "pourtant"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pourtant"?
"pourtant" is spelled P-O-U-R-T-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \puʁ.tɑ̃\.
What does "pourtant" mean?
As an adverb, "pourtant" means: Néanmoins ; cependant ; malgré cela.
What words are commonly confused with "pourtant"?
"pourtant" is commonly confused with "pouvant", "poussant", "portant". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pourtant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pourtant" is \puʁ.tɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pourtant" come from?
"pourtant" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pourtant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

laquelle#529nouveaux#530nombreux#511millions#509

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

nationale12 variantsfrançois12 variantstellement12 variantsservices12 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list