tentai

\tɑ̃.te\

/\tɑ̃.te\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“tentai” is uncommon French (frequency #92,257 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#92,257
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Première personne du singulier du passé simple de tenter.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tentai · tentai · French

tentai · rank #92,257 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #92,257
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH tengo

Nearest frequency peer: tengo (-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 « tentai »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « tentai » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tentai
PropertyValue
Headwordtentai
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\tɑ̃.te\
Letters6
Frequency rank#92,257
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tentai » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.tentaitombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « tengo » (#92,256), « terminologies » (#92,258), « tellure » (#92,255). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tentai » est au #92,257. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tentai is uncommon French at frequency #92,257 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \tɑ̃.te\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Première personne du singulier du passé simple de tenter.".

Zero misspellings are on record for tentai in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is tentai, spelled T-E-N-T-A-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Première personne du singulier du passé simple de tenter.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how tentai appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Je tentai une explication qui s’accrocha au portillon.

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

How do you spell "tentai"?
"tentai" is spelled T-E-N-T-A-I. The IPA pronunciation is \tɑ̃.te\.
What does "tentai" mean?
As a verb, "tentai" means: Première personne du singulier du passé simple de tenter.
How do you pronounce "tentai"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tentai" is \tɑ̃.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tentai" come from?
"tentai" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tentai", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

teubés#92,259taguée#92,244tablet#92,242Tohoku#92,274

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list