tense
\ˈten.se\
The verdict
“tense” is uncommon French (frequency #93,309 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #93,309
- frequency rank, French
- 3,703
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de tensar.
Corpus desk
Index FR-tense · tense · French
tense · rank #93,309 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #93,309
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,703
- PHOTO-FINISH tens
Nearest frequency peer: tens (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rangs de longue queue près de « tense »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- taxations
taxations
6,698 corpus weight
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teenager
6,695 corpus weight
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tells
6,694 corpus weight
- tens
tens
6,693 corpus weight
- tense
tense
6,692 corpus weight
- terrassier
terrassier
6,691 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « tense » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tense |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ˈten.se\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #93,309 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « tense » en français
Rare enough to double-check
tense is uncommon French at frequency #93,309 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \ˈten.se\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for tense, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is tense, spelled T-E-N-S-E.
Definition
- 1Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de tensar.
- 2Troisième personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de tensar.
- 3Troisième personne du singulier de l’impératif de tensar.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tense", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).