Which to use
“portées” is an adjective and “porteuse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,881
- “portées” frequency rank
- #15,723
- “porteuse” frequency rank
- 23604
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portées | porteuse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de porté. | Celle dont le métier ordinaire est de porter quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes portées and porteuse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. portées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against porteuse's 8 (CVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses portées with porteuse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portées is \pɔʁ.te\ while porteuse is \pɔʁ.tøz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23604, 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\. porteuse is at rank #15,723, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tøz\.
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 23604, this pair ranks #351,496 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of portées vs porteuse
Shared letters: eoprst. Private to "portées": é. Private to "porteuse": u.
"portées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "porteuse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- porteuse ← oprteuse · poretuse · porrteuse · portesue · porteues · porteusse · portteuse · portuese
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "portées" and "porteuse" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "portées" or "porteuse" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "portées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "porteuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,496 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portées" and "porteuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poreuse vs porteuse". 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 #351,496 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.