Which to use
“portées” is an adjective and “ports” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,881
- “portées” frequency rank
- #6,642
- “ports” frequency rank
- 14523
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portées | ports |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de porté. | Pluriel de port. |
Where the eye mixes portées and ports
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. portées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against ports's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses portées with ports
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portées is \pɔʁ.te\ while ports is \pɔʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 14523, 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\. 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 14523, this pair ranks #396,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of portées vs ports
Shared letters: oprst. Private to "portées": eé. Private to "ports": -.
"portées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "ports" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ports ← oprts · porrts · porst · portss · portts · potrs · pports · prots
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "portées" and "ports" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "portées" or "ports"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "portées" and "ports" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "portées" 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 #396,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portées" and "ports" 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 #396,302 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.