partantvsportanteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,262
“partant” frequency rank
#48,116
“portante” frequency rank
52378
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partant portante
Definition Qui part. Féminin singulier de portant.

Where the eye mixes partant and portante

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. partant runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against portante's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
partant
8 ch
portante

Visual trap between partant and portante

A purely visual mix-up. partant (\paʁ.tɑ̃\) and portante (\pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\) 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 52378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partant is recorded at frequency rank #4,262, classified as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.tɑ̃\. portante is at rank #48,116, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\.

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 52378, this pair ranks #148,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of partant vs portante

Shared letters: anprt. Private to "partant": -. Private to "portante": eo.

"partant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "portante" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partantaprtant · paratnt · parrtant · partannt · partantt · partatn · partnat · parttant
  • portanteoprtante · poratnte · porrtante · portanet · portannte · portantte · portatne · portnate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "partant" and "portante" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.tɑ̃\ versus \pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "partant" or "portante"?
"partant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,262 in our French list, against #48,116 for "portante". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "partant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "portante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partant" and "portante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parlante vs portante". 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 #148,138 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