Which to use
“porta” and “portait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,722
- “porta” frequency rank
- #4,362
- “portait” frequency rank
- 20084
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | porta | portait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de porter. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de porter. |
Where the eye mixes porta and portait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between porta and portait
A purely visual mix-up. porta (\pɔʁ.ta\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “porta” sits inside “portait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20084, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
porta is recorded at frequency rank #15,722, classified as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.ta\. 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 20084, this pair ranks #370,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of porta vs portait
Shared letters: aoprt. Private to "porta": -. Private to "portait": i.
"porta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "portait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "porta" and "portait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "porta" or "portait" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "porta" and "portait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "porta" 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 #370,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "porta" and "portait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parka vs porta". 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 #370,021 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.