partesvsportéeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,195
“partes” frequency rank
#2,010
“portée” frequency rank
37205
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partes portée
Definition De partir. 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 partes and portée apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
partes
6 ch
portée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: partes is \paʁt\ while portée is \pɔ.ʁte\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partes is recorded at frequency rank #35,195, classified as averb, pronounced \paʁt\. 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 37205, this pair ranks #264,132 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of partes vs portée

Shared letters: eprt. Private to "partes": as. Private to "portée": .

"partes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "portée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partesaprtes · parets · parrtes · partess · partse · parttes · patres · ppartes

Frequency comparison

partes#35,195
portée#2,010

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "partes" and "portée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "partes" is a verb and "portée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "partes" or "portée"?
"portée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,010 in our French list, against #35,195 for "partes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering partes vs portée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “partes”; for a noun, it's “portée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “partes” 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