parléevsportéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: parlée is a adjective, portée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“parlée” is an adjective and “portée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,272
“parlée” frequency rank
#2,010
“portée” frequency rank
20282
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parlée portée
Definition Féminin singulier de parlé. Totalité des petits que les femelles des vivipares portent et mettent bas en une fois.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
parlée
6 ch
portée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parlée is \paʁ.le\ while portée is \pɔ.ʁte\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parlée is recorded at frequency rank #18,272, classified as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.le\. portée is at rank #2,010, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.ʁte\.

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 20282, this pair ranks #369,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parlée vs portée

Shared letters: epré. Private to "parlée": al. Private to "portée": ot.

"parlée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "portée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequency comparison

parlée#18,272
portée#2,010

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parlée" and "portée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parlée" is an adjective and "portée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "parlée" or "portée"?
"portée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,010 in our French list, against #18,272 for "parlée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering parlée vs portée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list