Which to use
“pompage” and “portage” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,081
- “pompage” frequency rank
- #19,374
- “portage” frequency rank
- 44455
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pompage | portage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Activité qui consiste à utiliser une pompe pour déplacer de la matière. | Action de porter, de transporter. |
Where the eye mixes pompage and portage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pompage and portage follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pompage with portage
A purely visual mix-up. pompage (\pɔ̃.paʒ\) and portage (\pɔʁ.taʒ\) 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 44455, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pompage is recorded at frequency rank #25,081, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ̃.paʒ\. portage is at rank #19,374, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.taʒ\.
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 44455, this pair ranks #210,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pompage vs portage
Shared letters: aegop. Private to "pompage": m. Private to "portage": rt.
"pompage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "portage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pompage" for "portage" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pompage" or "portage"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pompage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #210,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pompage" and "portage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "portage 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 #210,342 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.