portsvspostesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,642
“ports” frequency rank
#2,192
“postes” frequency rank
8834
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ports postes
Definition Pluriel de port. Pluriel de poste.

Where the eye mixes ports and postes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ports
6 ch
postes

Look-alike desk: ports vs postes

A purely visual mix-up. ports (\pɔʁ\) and postes (\pɔst\) 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 8834, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ports is recorded at frequency rank #6,642, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ\. postes is at rank #2,192, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔst\.

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 8834, this pair ranks #418,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ports vs postes

Shared letters: opst. Private to "ports": r. Private to "postes": e.

"ports" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "postes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portsoprts · porrts · porst · portss · portts · potrs · pports · prots
  • postesopstes · posets · posstes · postess · postse · posttes · potses · ppostes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ports" and "postes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɔʁ\ versus \pɔst\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "ports" or "postes" show up more?
"postes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,192 in our French list, against #6,642 for "ports". 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 "ports" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "postes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ports" and "postes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perfs vs ports". 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 #418,705 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