portiervsposterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,970
“portier” frequency rank
#5,385
“poster” frequency rank
22355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portier poster
Definition Homme dont la profession est de garder une porte d’entrée. Affiche dont la fonction est essentiellement décorative, qui n’est pas ou a cessé d’être publicitaire.

Where the eye mixes portier and poster

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

7 ch
portier
6 ch
poster

Look-alike desk: portier vs poster

A purely visual mix-up. portier (\pɔʁ.tje\) and poster (\pɔs.tɛʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

portier is recorded at frequency rank #16,970, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tje\. poster is at rank #5,385, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.tɛʁ\.

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 22355, this pair ranks #358,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of portier vs poster

Shared letters: eoprt. Private to "portier": i. Private to "poster": s.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portieroprtier · poriter · porrtier · porteir · portierr · portire · porttier · potrier
  • posteropster · posetr · posster · posterr · postre · postter · potser · pposter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "portier" for "poster" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɔʁ.tje\ versus \pɔs.tɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "portier" vs "poster" - which ranks higher?
"poster" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,385 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.

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 "portier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poster" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #358,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "portier" and "poster" 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 #358,430 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