portée vs portière, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“portée” and “portière” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,010
“portée” frequency rank: #20,241
“portière” frequency rank: 22251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	portée	portière
Definition	Totalité des petits que les femelles des vivipares portent et mettent bas en une fois.	Femme dont la profession est de garder une porte d’entrée.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set portée and portière apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

portée

8 ch

portière

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. portée (\pɔ.ʁte\) and portière (\pɔʁ.tjɛʁ\) 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 22251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

portée is recorded at frequency rank #2,010, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.ʁte\. portière is at rank #20,241, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tjɛʁ\.

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 22251, this pair ranks #359,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of portée vs portière

Shared letters: eoprt. Private to "portée": é. Private to "portière": iè.

"portée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "portière" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Frequency comparison

portée#2,010

portière#20,241

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "portée" and "portière" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\pɔ.ʁte\ versus \pɔʁ.tjɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "portée" or "portière"?

"portée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,010 in our French list, against #20,241 for "portière". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering portée vs portière

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “portée” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable