Which to use
“pointée” is an adjective and “portée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,528
- “pointée” frequency rank
- #2,010
- “portée” frequency rank
- 34538
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pointée | portée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de pointé. | Totalité des petits que les femelles des vivipares portent et mettent bas en une fois. |
Where the eye mixes pointée and portée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pointée runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against portée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pointée vs portée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pointée is \pwɛ̃.te\ while portée is \pɔ.ʁte\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pointée is recorded at frequency rank #32,528, classified as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.te\. 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 34538, this pair ranks #283,107 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pointée vs portée
Shared letters: eopté. Private to "pointée": in. Private to "portée": r.
"pointée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "portée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pointée" for "portée" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pointée" or "portée" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pointée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #283,107 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pointée" and "portée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointée vs pontet". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #283,107 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.