Which to use
“pointait” and “portait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,485
- “pointait” frequency rank
- #4,362
- “portait” frequency rank
- 41847
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pointait | portait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de pointer. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de porter. |
Where the eye mixes pointait and portait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. pointait runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVC) against portait's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pointait vs portait
A purely visual mix-up. pointait (\pwɛ̃.tɛ\) and portait (\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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41847, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pointait is recorded at frequency rank #37,485, classified as averb, pronounced \pwɛ̃.tɛ\. portait is at rank #4,362, 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 41847, this pair ranks #230,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pointait vs portait
Shared letters: aiopt. Private to "pointait": n. Private to "portait": r.
"pointait" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC · "portait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pointait" and "portait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pointait" vs "portait" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "pointait" and "portait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pointait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #230,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pointait" and "portait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointage vs pointait". 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 #230,067 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.