comprendrevscomprenneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#600
“comprendre” frequency rank
#11,933
“comprenne” frequency rank
12533
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comprendre comprenne
Definition Contenir en soi. Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de comprendre.

Where the eye mixes comprendre and comprenne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
comprendre
9 ch
comprenne

Why the eye confuses comprendre with comprenne

A purely visual mix-up. comprendre (\kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃dʁ\) and comprenne (\kɔ̃.pʁɛn\) 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 12533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comprendre is recorded at frequency rank #600, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃dʁ\. comprenne is at rank #11,933, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.pʁɛn\.

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 12533, this pair ranks #404,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of comprendre vs comprenne

Shared letters: cemnopr. Private to "comprendre": d. Private to "comprenne": -.

"comprendre" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCCV  ·  "comprenne" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comprendreccomprendre · cmoprendre · commprendre · comperndre · compprendre · comprednre · comprenddre · comprender
  • comprenneccomprenne · cmoprenne · commprenne · compernne · compprenne · comprene · comprenen · comprnene

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "comprendre" and "comprenne" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃dʁ\ versus \kɔ̃.pʁɛn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "comprendre" vs "comprenne" - which ranks higher?
"comprendre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #600 in our French list, against #11,933 for "comprenne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comprendre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comprenne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comprendre" and "comprenne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "compreniez vs comprenne". 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 #404,857 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