perceusevsporteuseConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#31,175
“perceuse” frequency rank
#15,723
“porteuse” frequency rank
46898
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perceuse porteuse
Definition Outil permettant de percer, de faire des trous, généralement à l’aide d’un foret rotatif. Celle dont le métier ordinaire est de porter quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes perceuse and porteuse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. perceuse and porteuse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
perceuse
8 ch
porteuse

Look-alike desk: perceuse vs porteuse

A purely visual mix-up. perceuse (\pɛʁ.søz\) and porteuse (\pɔʁ.tøz\) 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 46898, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perceuse is recorded at frequency rank #31,175, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.søz\. porteuse is at rank #15,723, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tøz\.

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 46898, this pair ranks #191,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perceuse vs porteuse

Shared letters: eprsu. Private to "perceuse": c. Private to "porteuse": ot.

"perceuse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "porteuse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perceuse ← eprceuse · pecreuse · percceuse · percesue · perceues · perceusse · percuese · perecuse
  • porteuse ← oprteuse · poretuse · porrteuse · portesue · porteues · porteusse · portteuse · portuese

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perceuse" and "porteuse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.søz\ versus \pɔʁ.tøz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "perceuse" or "porteuse"?
"porteuse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,723 in our French list, against #31,175 for "perceuse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "perceuse" and "porteuse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perceuse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "porteuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perceuse" and "porteuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perceuse vs poreuse". 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 #191,176 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