Which to use
“portant” and “portante” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,009
- “portant” frequency rank
- #48,116
- “portante” frequency rank
- 50125
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portant | portante |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui porte, dans les différents sens du verbe porter. | Féminin singulier de portant. |
Where the eye mixes portant and portante
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. portant runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against portante's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: portant vs portante
A purely visual mix-up. portant (\pɔʁ.tɑ̃\) and portante (\pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\) 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 extra letter(s) - “portant” sits inside “portante”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portant is recorded at frequency rank #2,009, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɑ̃\. portante is at rank #48,116, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\.
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 50125, this pair ranks #165,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of portant vs portante
Shared letters: anoprt. Private to "portant": -. Private to "portante": e.
"portant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "portante" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portant" for "portante" ever safe?
Frequency check: "portant" vs "portante" - which ranks higher?
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 "portant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #165,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portant" and "portante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parlante 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 #165,122 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.