Which to use
“attendre” is a verb and “attendu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #784
- “attendre” frequency rank
- #2,215
- “attendu” frequency rank
- 2999
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | attendre | attendu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ne pas bouger, rester là où l’on est pour la venue de quelque chose ou de quelqu’un. | Motifs donnés par les juges de première instance. |
Where the eye mixes attendre and attendu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: attendre vs attendu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: attendre is \a.tɑ̃dʁ\ while attendu is \a.tɑ̃.dy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
attendre is recorded at frequency rank #784, classified as averb, pronounced \a.tɑ̃dʁ\. attendu is at rank #2,215, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.tɑ̃.dy\.
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 2999, this pair ranks #435,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of attendre vs attendu
Shared letters: adent. Private to "attendre": r. Private to "attendu": u.
"attendre" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCCV · "attendu" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "attendre" and "attendu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "attendre" or "attendu" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "attendre" and "attendu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "attendre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "attendu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #435,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "attendre" and "attendu" 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 #435,027 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.