Which to use
“depend” and “détends” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,692
- “depend” frequency rank
- #40,734
- “détends” frequency rank
- 67426
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | depend | détends |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (Suivi de on ou de upon, et plus anciennement de of) Dépendre (de). | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de détendre. |
Where the eye mixes depend and détends
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between depend and détends
A purely visual mix-up. depend (\dɪˈpɛnd\) and détends (\de.tɑ̃\) 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 67426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
depend is recorded at frequency rank #26,692, classified as averb, pronounced \dɪˈpɛnd\. détends is at rank #40,734, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.tɑ̃\.
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 67426, this pair ranks #63,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of depend vs détends
Shared letters: den. Private to "depend": p. Private to "détends": sté.
"depend" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "détends" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- depend ← ddepend · deepnd · depedn · dependd · depennd · depned · deppend · dpeend
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "depend" and "détends" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "depend" or "détends" show up more?
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 "depend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "détends" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "depend" and "détends" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "détends vs détendus". 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 #63,490 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.