portésvsporteuseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“portés” and “porteuse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,742
“portés” frequency rank
#15,723
“porteuse” frequency rank
23465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portés porteuse
Definition Pluriel de porté. Celle dont le métier ordinaire est de porter quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes portés and porteuse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. portés runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against porteuse's 8 (CVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
portés
8 ch
porteuse

Look-alike desk: portés vs porteuse

A purely visual mix-up. portés (\pɔʁ.te\) and porteuse (\pɔʁ.tøz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

portés is recorded at frequency rank #7,742, classified as anoun, 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 23465, this pair ranks #352,323 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of portés vs porteuse

Shared letters: oprst. Private to "portés": é. Private to "porteuse": eu.

"portés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "porteuse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • porteuse ← oprteuse · poretuse · porrteuse · portesue · porteues · porteusse · portteuse · portuese

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "portés" and "porteuse" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɔʁ.te\ versus \pɔʁ.tøz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "portés" or "porteuse"?
"portés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,742 in our French list, against #15,723 for "porteuse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "portés" 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 #352,323 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "portés" 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 #352,323 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list