What does “porte-filtre” mean in French?

Ma routine du matin pour préparer un café

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A1 French listening practice · French from France · Curated for beginners

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le porte-filtre
French everyday word (kitchen / word-building)
the filter holder“ — and the porte- part means ”holds,“ not ”door

In this coffee video, the speaker names le porte-filtre: the small part that holds the paper filter over the cup. Here porte- does not mean “door.” It comes from the verb porter, “to carry” or “to hold.” So le porte-filtre is “the thing that holds the filter.” French builds many words this way, and once you see the pattern you can guess what each one holds.

In the clip he says: “ça c’est le porte-filtre. Je pose le porte-filtre sur la tasse” — “this is the filter holder. I put the filter holder on the cup.” He also says “le filtre à café” (the coffee filter) just before, so you hear the two words next to each other. The pattern is: porte- + a noun = “the thing that holds/carries that noun.” It comes from porter (to carry). You see it very often: un porte-monnaie (holds money = a coin purse), un porte-clés (holds keys = a keyring), un porte-manteau (holds coats = a coat rack). The porte- part never changes, even in the plural: deux porte-clés. So when you see a new porte- word, ask “what does it hold?” That often gives you the meaning.

Vocabulary frequency

How common is the vocabulary in this A1 French listening practice listening practice?

86%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common French words
Based on this reel’s transcript, most of the vocabulary is high-frequency, everyday French.

General French frequency

73.7%
Top 1,000
86%
Top 2,000
91.9%
Top 5,000

Spoken French frequency

83.8%
Top 1,000
93.1%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Conversational vocabulary
This reel’s words appear more often in subtitle-based spoken-French data than in general usage, so it may feel closer to everyday conversation.

Words above this video’s level

Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s A1 level.

cuillères
3×
Rare / outside top 5,000
bouilloire
2×
Rare / outside top 5,000
kettle
bouillante
3×
Rare / outside top 5,000
verse
1×
Rare / outside top 5,000
bouillir
1×
Rare / outside top 5,000
to boil
ça y est
1×
That's it / It's done (idiomatic confirmation)

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · Lexique 3.83 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.

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