Which to use
“portière” and “portières” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,241
- “portière” frequency rank
- #35,650
- “portières” frequency rank
- 55891
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portière | portières |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme dont la profession est de garder une porte d’entrée. | Pluriel de portière. |
Same sound, different letters: portière vs portières
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. portière runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against portières's 9 (CVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - portière and portières
This is the hard kind. portière and portières are pronounced identically (\pɔʁ.tjɛʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “portière” sits inside “portières”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portière is recorded at frequency rank #20,241, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tjɛʁ\. portières is at rank #35,650, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tjɛʁ\.
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 55891, this pair ranks #124,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of portière vs portières
Shared letters: eioprtè. Private to "portière": -. Private to "portières": s.
"portière" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV · "portières" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portière" for "portières" ever safe?
Frequency check: "portière" vs "portières" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "portière" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portières" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #124,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portière" and "portières" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "portières vs potiers". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #124,539 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.