portéesvspoupéesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#7,881
“portées” frequency rank
#14,537
“poupées” frequency rank
22418
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portées poupées
Definition Féminin pluriel de porté. Pluriel de poupée.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
portées
7 ch
poupées

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portées is \pɔʁ.te\ while poupées is \pu.pe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22418, 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\. poupées is at rank #14,537, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu.pe\.

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 22418, this pair ranks #358,074 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of portées vs poupées

Shared letters: eopsé. Private to "portées": rt. Private to "poupées": u.

"portées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "poupées" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC

Frequency comparison

portées#7,881
poupées#14,537

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "portées" and "poupées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "portées" is an adjective and "poupées" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "portées" or "poupées"?
"portées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,881 in our French list, against #14,537 for "poupées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering portées vs poupées

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 “poupées”.
  • 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