portezvsportierTell them apart

Quick tell: portez is a verb, portier is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“portez” is a verb and “portier” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,638
“portez” frequency rank
#16,970
“portier” frequency rank
28608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portez portier
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de porter. Homme dont la profession est de garder une porte d’entrée.

Where the eye mixes portez and portier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
portez
7 ch
portier

Visual trap between portez and portier

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portez is \pɔʁ.te\ while portier is \pɔʁ.tje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

portez is recorded at frequency rank #11,638, classified as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.te\. portier is at rank #16,970, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tje\.

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 28608, this pair ranks #321,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of portez vs portier

Shared letters: eoprt. Private to "portez": z. Private to "portier": i.

"portez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "portier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portezoprtez · poretz · porrtez · portezz · porttez · portze · potrez · pportez
  • portieroprtier · poriter · porrtier · porteir · portierr · portire · porttier · potrier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "portez" for "portier" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "portez" is a verb and "portier" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "portez" or "portier" show up more?
"portez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,638 in our French list, against #16,970 for "portier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "portez" and "portier" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "portez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "portier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "portez" and "portier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "portier vs potiers". 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 #321,739 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