Which to use
“attend” and “attendre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,106
- “attend” frequency rank
- #784
- “attendre” frequency rank
- 1890
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | attend | attendre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de attendre. | Ne pas bouger, rester là où l’on est pour la venue de quelque chose ou de quelqu’un. |
Where the eye mixes attend and attendre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses attend with attendre
A purely visual mix-up. attend (\a.tɑ̃\) and attendre (\a.tɑ̃dʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “attend” sits inside “attendre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
attend is recorded at frequency rank #1,106, classified as averb, pronounced \a.tɑ̃\. attendre is at rank #784, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.tɑ̃dʁ\.
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 1890, this pair ranks #437,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of attend vs attendre
Shared letters: adent. Private to "attend": -. Private to "attendre": r.
"attend" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "attendre" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "attend" and "attendre" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "attend" vs "attendre" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "attend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "attendre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "attend" and "attendre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "attendre vs attendrir". 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 #437,194 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.