apprendvsapprendsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“apprend” and “apprends” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,350
“apprend” frequency rank
#5,424
“apprends” frequency rank
7774
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apprend apprends
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de apprendre. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de apprendre.

Same sound, different letters: apprend vs apprends

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
apprend
8 ch
apprends

Ear matches; page differs - apprend and apprends

This is the hard kind. apprend and apprends are pronounced identically (\a.pʁɑ̃\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “apprend” sits inside “apprends”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apprend is recorded at frequency rank #2,350, classified as averb, pronounced \a.pʁɑ̃\. apprends is at rank #5,424, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.pʁɑ̃\.

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 7774, this pair ranks #422,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of apprend vs apprends

Shared letters: adenpr. Private to "apprend": -. Private to "apprends": s.

"apprend" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCC  ·  "apprends" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apprendappernd · appredn · apprendd · apprennd · apprned · apprrend · aprend · aprpend
  • apprendsappernds · appredns · apprendds · apprendss · apprennds · apprensd · apprneds · apprrends

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "apprend" and "apprends" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.pʁɑ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "apprend" or "apprends"?
"apprend" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,350 in our French list, against #5,424 for "apprends". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "apprend" / "apprends". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "apprend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apprends" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apprend" and "apprends" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apprenais vs apprends". 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 #422,168 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list