Which to use
“portier” and “postier” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,970
- “portier” frequency rank
- #48,117
- “postier” frequency rank
- 65087
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portier | postier |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Homme dont la profession est de garder une porte d’entrée. | Agent, employé du service des postes. |
Where the eye mixes portier and postier
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between portier and postier
A purely visual mix-up. portier (\pɔʁ.tje\) and postier (\pɔs.tje\) 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 a single letter - r in “portier” becomes s in “postier”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65087, 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\. postier is at rank #48,117, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.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 65087, this pair ranks #73,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of portier vs postier
Shared letters: eioprt. Private to "portier": -. Private to "postier": s.
"portier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "postier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "portier" and "postier" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "portier" or "postier" show up more?
What to do next
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 "postier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #73,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portier" and "postier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "postier 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 #73,898 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.