Which to use
“portent” and “portons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,731
- “portent” frequency rank
- #23,983
- “portons” frequency rank
- 26714
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portent | portons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de porter. | Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de porter. |
Where the eye mixes portent and portons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. portent and portons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: portent vs portons
A purely visual mix-up. portent (\pɔʁt\) and portons (\pɔʁ.tɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26714, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portent is recorded at frequency rank #2,731, classified as averb, pronounced \pɔʁt\. portons is at rank #23,983, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɔ̃\.
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 26714, this pair ranks #333,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of portent vs portons
Shared letters: noprt. Private to "portent": e. Private to "portons": s.
"portent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "portons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portent" for "portons" ever safe?
Which is more common, "portent" or "portons"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "portent" and "portons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "portent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #333,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portent" and "portons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parions vs portons". 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 #333,274 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.