partagentvsportaientTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,121
“partagent” frequency rank
#11,459
“portaient” frequency rank
17580
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partagent portaient
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de partager. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de porter.

Where the eye mixes partagent and portaient

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
partagent
9 ch
portaient

Why the eye confuses partagent with portaient

A purely visual mix-up. partagent (\paʁ.taʒ\) and portaient (\pɔʁ.tɛ\) 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 17580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partagent is recorded at frequency rank #6,121, classified as averb, pronounced \paʁ.taʒ\. portaient is at rank #11,459, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɛ\.

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 17580, this pair ranks #382,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of partagent vs portaient

Shared letters: aenprt. Private to "partagent": g. Private to "portaient": io.

"partagent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC  ·  "portaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partagentaprtagent · paratgent · parrtagent · partaegnt · partagennt · partagentt · partagetn · partaggent
  • portaientoprtaient · poratient · porrtaient · portaeint · portaiennt · portaientt · portaietn · portainet

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "partagent" and "portaient" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.taʒ\ versus \pɔʁ.tɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "partagent" vs "portaient" - which ranks higher?
"partagent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,121 in our French list, against #11,459 for "portaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "partagent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "portaient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #382,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partagent" and "portaient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "portaient vs portèrent". 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 #382,470 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