portiervspotiersWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,970
“portier” frequency rank
#48,726
“potiers” frequency rank
65696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portier potiers
Definition Homme dont la profession est de garder une porte d’entrée. Pluriel de potier.

Where the eye mixes portier and potiers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
portier
7 ch
potiers

Why the eye confuses portier with potiers

A purely visual mix-up. portier (\pɔʁ.tje\) and potiers (\po.tje\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65696, 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\. potiers is at rank #48,726, tagged as anoun, pronounced \po.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 65696, this pair ranks #71,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of portier vs potiers

Shared letters: eioprt. Private to "portier": -. Private to "potiers": s.

"portier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "potiers" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portieroprtier · poriter · porrtier · porteir · portierr · portire · porttier · potrier
  • potiersoptiers · poiters · poteirs · potierrs · potierss · potiesr · potires · pottiers

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "portier" and "potiers" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɔʁ.tje\ versus \po.tje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "portier" or "potiers"?
"portier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,970 in our French list, against #48,726 for "potiers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "portier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "potiers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "portier" and "potiers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pamiers 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 #71,160 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