Which to use
“antan” is an adverb and “entends” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,208
- “antan” frequency rank
- #2,275
- “entends” frequency rank
- 21483
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | antan | entends |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | L’année dernière. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de entendre. |
Same sound, different letters: antan vs entends
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. antan runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against entends's 7 (VCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - antan / entends
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: antan and entends carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɑ̃.tɑ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadverb, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
antan is recorded at frequency rank #19,208, classified as anadv, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃\. entends is at rank #2,275, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃\.
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 21483, this pair ranks #362,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of antan vs entends
Shared letters: nt. Private to "antan": a. Private to "entends": des.
"antan" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "entends" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "antan" and "entends" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "antan" or "entends" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "antan" / "entends". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "antan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "entends" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #362,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "antan" and "entends" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "antan vs Asean". 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 #362,944 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.