Which to use
“portée” and “ports” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,010
- “portée” frequency rank
- #6,642
- “ports” frequency rank
- 8652
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portée | ports |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Totalité des petits que les femelles des vivipares portent et mettent bas en une fois. | Pluriel de port. |
Where the eye mixes portée and ports
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses portée with ports
A purely visual mix-up. portée (\pɔ.ʁte\) and ports (\pɔʁ\) 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 8652, 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\. ports is at rank #6,642, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ\.
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 8652, this pair ranks #419,289 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of portée vs ports
Shared letters: oprt. Private to "portée": eé. Private to "ports": s.
"portée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "ports" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ports ← oprts · porrts · porst · portss · portts · potrs · pports · prots
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portée" for "ports" ever safe?
Which is more common, "portée" or "ports"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "portée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ports" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #419,289 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portée" and "ports" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perfs vs ports". 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 #419,289 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.