pentevsporteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“pente” and “porte” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,363
“pente” frequency rank
#4,093
“porte” frequency rank
20456
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pente porte
Definition objeto usado para pentear o cabelo o ato de portar, transportar

Where the eye mixes pente and porte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pente and porte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pente
5 ch
porte

Visual trap between pente and porte

A purely visual mix-up. pente (/ˈpẽ.tɨ/) and porte (/ˈpɔɾ.tɨ/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20456, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pente is recorded at frequency rank #16,363, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpẽ.tɨ/. porte is at rank #4,093, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔɾ.tɨ/.

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 20456, this pair ranks #50,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pente vs porte

Shared letters: ept. Private to "pente": n. Private to "porte": or.

"pente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "porte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pente ← epnte · penet · pennte · pentte · petne · pnete · ppente
  • porte ← oprte · poret · porrte · portte · potre · pporte · prote

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pente" and "porte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpẽ.tɨ/ versus /ˈpɔɾ.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pente" vs "porte" - which ranks higher?
"porte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,093 in our Portuguese list, against #16,363 for "pente". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "porte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pente" and "porte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedinte vs pente". 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 #50,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list