tendióvstenisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tendió is a verb, tenis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tendió” is a verb and “tenis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,137
“tendió” frequency rank
#4,656
“tenis” frequency rank
35793
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tendió tenis
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de tender o de tenderse. Deporte que consiste en golpear con una raqueta una pelota para lanzarla de un lugar a otro.

Where the eye mixes tendió and tenis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tendió runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against tenis's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
tendió
5 ch
tenis

Why the eye confuses tendió with tenis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tendió is [t̪ẽn̪ˈd̪jo] while tenis is [ˈt̪enis]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35793, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tendió is recorded at frequency rank #31,137, classified as averb, pronounced [t̪ẽn̪ˈd̪jo]. tenis is at rank #4,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪enis].

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 35793, this pair ranks #184,147 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tendió vs tenis

Shared letters: eint. Private to "tendió": dó. Private to "tenis": s.

"tendió" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "tenis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tenis ← etnis · teins · teniss · tensi · tneis · ttenis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tendió" and "tenis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tendió" is a verb and "tenis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tendió" or "tenis" show up more?
"tenis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,656 in our Spanish list, against #31,137 for "tendió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tendió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tenis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,147 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tendió" and "tenis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tendían vs tendió". 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 #184,147 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list