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. |
Same sound, different letters: portées vs porter
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. portées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against porter's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - portées and porter
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": sé. Private to "porter": -.
"portées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "porter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- porter ← oprter · poretr · porrter · porterr · portre · portter · potrer · pporter
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portées" for "porter" ever safe?
Frequency check: "portées" vs "porter" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "portées" / "porter". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "portées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "porter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #418,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portées" and "porter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "portées vs prêtées". 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 #418,911 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.