Which to use
“tend” is a verb and “ter” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,648
- “tend” frequency rank
- #20,796
- “ter” frequency rank
- 23444
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tend | ter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make a tender of; to offer or tender. | Eye dialect spelling of to. |
Letter map: tend vs ter
Shared letters muted; letters that set tend and ter apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for tend / ter
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tend is averb and teraparticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tend is recorded at frequency rank #2,648, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈtɛnd/. ter is at rank #20,796, tagged as aparticle.
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 23444, this pair ranks #409,213 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tend vs ter
Shared letters: et. Private to "tend": dn. Private to "ter": r.
"tend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "ter" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tend ← etnd · tedn · tendd · tennd · tned · ttend
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tend" for "ter" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tend" or "ter"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tend" and "ter".
- Full dictionary entry for "tend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,213 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tend" and "ter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Taf vs ter". 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 #409,213 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.