portéesvsporterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: portées is a adjective, porter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“portées” is an adjective and “porter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,881
“portées” frequency rank
#883
“porter” frequency rank
8764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portées porter
Definition Féminin pluriel de porté. Soutenir quelque chose ou quelqu’un.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
portées
6 ch
porter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: portées and porter carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɔʁ.te\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

portées is recorded at frequency rank #7,881, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.te\. porter is at rank #883, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.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 8764, this pair ranks #418,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of portées vs porter

Shared letters: eoprt. Private to "portées": . Private to "porter": -.

"portées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "porter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • porteroprter · poretr · porrter · porterr · portre · portter · potrer · pporter

Frequency comparison

portées#7,881
porter#883

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "portées" and "porter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "portées" is an adjective and "porter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "portées" or "porter"?
"porter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #883 in our French list, against #7,881 for "portées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering portées vs porter

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “portées”; for a verb, it's “porter”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “portées” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list