Which to use
“portais” and “portatif” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,136
- “portais” frequency rank
- #36,535
- “portatif” frequency rank
- 62671
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portais | portatif |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatif au Port, commune française située dans le département de l’Ariège. | Que l’on peut aisément porter pour le déplacer. |
Where the eye mixes portais and portatif
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. portais runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against portatif's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between portais and portatif
A purely visual mix-up. portais (\pɔʁ.tɛ\) and portatif (\pɔʁ.ta.tif\) 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 62671, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portais is recorded at frequency rank #26,136, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɛ\. portatif is at rank #36,535, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.ta.tif\.
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 62671, this pair ranks #85,939 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of portais vs portatif
Shared letters: aioprt. Private to "portais": s. Private to "portatif": f.
"portais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "portatif" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portais" for "portatif" ever safe?
Which is more common, "portais" or "portatif"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "portais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portatif" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #85,939 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portais" and "portatif" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pertuis vs portais". 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 #85,939 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.