Which to use
“portables” is an adjective and “portails” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,599
- “portables” frequency rank
- #25,770
- “portails” frequency rank
- 34369
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portables | portails |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de portable. | Pluriel de portail. |
Where the eye mixes portables and portails
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. portables runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against portails's 8 (CVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses portables with portails
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portables is \pɔʁ.tabl\ while portails is \pɔʁ.taj\. 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 34369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portables is recorded at frequency rank #8,599, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.tabl\. portails is at rank #25,770, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.taj\.
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 34369, this pair ranks #284,317 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of portables vs portails
Shared letters: aloprst. Private to "portables": be. Private to "portails": i.
"portables" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC · "portails" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "portables" and "portails" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "portables" or "portails" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "portables" and "portails" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "portables" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portails" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #284,317 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portables" and "portails" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "portails vs Portal". 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 #284,317 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.