attendrirvsatterrirConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#46,590
“attendrir” frequency rank
#14,605
“atterrir” frequency rank
61195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature attendrir atterrir
Definition Rendre tendre et facile à manger. Arriver au voisinage de la terre.

Where the eye mixes attendrir and atterrir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. attendrir runs 9 letters (VCCVCCCVC) against atterrir's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
attendrir
8 ch
atterrir

Visual trap between attendrir and atterrir

A purely visual mix-up. attendrir (\ɑ.tɑ̃.dʁiʁ\) and atterrir (\a.tɛ.ʁiʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

attendrir is recorded at frequency rank #46,590, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ.tɑ̃.dʁiʁ\. atterrir is at rank #14,605, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.tɛ.ʁiʁ\.

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 61195, this pair ranks #93,579 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of attendrir vs atterrir

Shared letters: aeirt. Private to "attendrir": dn. Private to "atterrir": -.

"attendrir" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCCVC  ·  "atterrir" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • attendrir ← atendrir · atetndrir · attednrir · attenddrir · attendirr · attendrirr · attendrri · attendrrir
  • atterrir ← aterrir · atetrrir · atterir · atterirr · atterrirr · atterrri · attrerir · taterrir

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "attendrir" and "atterrir" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ.tɑ̃.dʁiʁ\ versus \a.tɛ.ʁiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "attendrir" or "atterrir" show up more?
"atterrir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,605 in our French list, against #46,590 for "attendrir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "attendrir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atterrir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,579 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "attendrir" and "atterrir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "attendit 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 #93,579 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