Which to use
“comprend” and “comprendre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #918
- “comprend” frequency rank
- #600
- “comprendre” frequency rank
- 1518
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | comprend | comprendre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de comprendre. | Contenir en soi. |
Where the eye mixes comprend and comprendre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between comprend and comprendre
A purely visual mix-up. comprend (\kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃\) and comprendre (\kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃dʁ\) 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) - “comprend” sits inside “comprendre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1518, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
comprend is recorded at frequency rank #918, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃\. comprendre is at rank #600, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃dʁ\.
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 1518, this pair ranks #437,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of comprend vs comprendre
Shared letters: cdemnopr. Private to "comprend": -. Private to "comprendre": -.
"comprend" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCC · "comprendre" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- comprend ← ccomprend · cmoprend · commprend · compernd · compprend · compredn · comprendd · comprennd
- comprendre ← ccomprendre · cmoprendre · commprendre · comperndre · compprendre · comprednre · comprenddre · comprender
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "comprend" for "comprendre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "comprend" or "comprendre"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "comprend" and "comprendre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "comprend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "comprendre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "comprend" and "comprendre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comparent vs comprend". 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 #437,908 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.