Which to use
“portée” is a noun and “prêtée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,010
- “portée” frequency rank
- #33,853
- “prêtée” frequency rank
- 35863
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portée | prêtée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Totalité des petits que les femelles des vivipares portent et mettent bas en une fois. | Féminin singulier de prêté. |
Where the eye mixes portée and prêtée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. portée (CVCCVV) and prêtée (CCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: portée vs prêtée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portée is \pɔ.ʁte\ while prêtée is \pʁɛ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35863, 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\. prêtée is at rank #33,853, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɛ.te\.
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 35863, this pair ranks #273,700 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of portée vs prêtée
Shared letters: eprté. Private to "portée": o. Private to "prêtée": ê.
"portée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "prêtée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "portée" and "prêtée" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "portée" vs "prêtée" - 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 "portée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prêtée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #273,700 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portée" and "prêtée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêtée vs priée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #273,700 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.