parléesvsportéesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“parlées” and “portées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,990
“parlées” frequency rank
#7,881
“portées” frequency rank
44871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parlées portées
Definition Féminin pluriel de parlé. Féminin pluriel de porté.

Where the eye mixes parlées and portées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. parlées and portées follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
parlées
7 ch
portées

Why the eye confuses parlées with portées

A purely visual mix-up. parlées (\paʁ.le\) and portées (\pɔʁ.te\) 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 44871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parlées is recorded at frequency rank #36,990, classified as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.le\. portées is at rank #7,881, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.te\.

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 44871, this pair ranks #207,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parlées vs portées

Shared letters: eprsé. Private to "parlées": al. Private to "portées": ot.

"parlées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "portées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "parlées" and "portées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.le\ versus \pɔʁ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "parlées" or "portées"?
"portées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,881 in our French list, against #36,990 for "parlées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parlées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "portées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parlées" and "portées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parlées vs parlers". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #207,153 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list