Which to use
“portait” and “porterait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,362
- “portait” frequency rank
- #19,946
- “porterait” frequency rank
- 24308
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portait | porterait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de porter. | Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel présent de porter. |
Where the eye mixes portait and porterait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. portait runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against porterait's 9 (CVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between portait and porterait
A purely visual mix-up. portait (\pɔʁ.tɛ\) and porterait (\pɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24308, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portait is recorded at frequency rank #4,362, classified as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɛ\. porterait is at rank #19,946, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ\.
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 24308, this pair ranks #347,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of portait vs porterait
Shared letters: aioprt. Private to "portait": -. Private to "porterait": e.
"portait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "porterait" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portait" for "porterait" ever safe?
Which is more common, "portait" or "porterait"?
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 "portait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "porterait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #347,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portait" and "porterait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "porterait vs portèrent". 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 #347,349 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.