portéesvspotesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#7,881
“portées” frequency rank
#3,488
“potes” frequency rank
11369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portées potes
Definition Féminin pluriel de porté. Pluriel de pote.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
portées
5 ch
potes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portées is \pɔʁ.te\ while potes is \pɔt\. 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 11369, 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\. potes is at rank #3,488, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔt\.

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 11369, this pair ranks #409,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of portées vs potes

Shared letters: eopst. Private to "portées": . Private to "potes": -.

"portées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "potes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • potesoptes · poets · potess · pottes · ppotes · ptoes

Frequency comparison

portées#7,881
potes#3,488

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "portées" and "potes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "portées" is an adjective and "potes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "portées" or "potes"?
"potes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,488 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 potes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “portées”; for a noun, it's “potes”.
  • 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