Which to use
“porteurs” is an adjective and “porteuse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,480
- “porteurs” frequency rank
- #15,723
- “porteuse” frequency rank
- 23203
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | porteurs | porteuse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de porteur. | Celle dont le métier ordinaire est de porter quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes porteurs and porteuse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. porteurs (CVCCVVCC) and porteuse (CVCCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: porteurs vs porteuse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: porteurs is \pɔʁ.tœʁ\ while porteuse is \pɔʁ.tøz\. 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 23203, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
porteurs is recorded at frequency rank #7,480, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.tœʁ\. 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 23203, this pair ranks #353,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of porteurs vs porteuse
Shared letters: eoprstu. Private to "porteurs": -. Private to "porteuse": -.
"porteurs" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC · "porteuse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "porteurs" for "porteuse" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "porteurs" or "porteuse" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "porteurs" 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 #353,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "porteurs" 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 #353,811 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.