Which to use
“dépendaient” and “descendaient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,250
- “dépendaient” frequency rank
- #49,593
- “descendaient” frequency rank
- 90843
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépendaient | descendaient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de dépendre. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de descendre. |
Where the eye mixes dépendaient and descendaient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. dépendaient runs 11 letters (CVCVCCVVVCC) against descendaient's 12 (CVCCVCCVVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses dépendaient with descendaient
A purely visual mix-up. dépendaient (\de.pɑ̃.dɛ\) and descendaient (\dɛ.sɑ̃.dɛ\) 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 90843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dépendaient is recorded at frequency rank #41,250, classified as averb, pronounced \de.pɑ̃.dɛ\. descendaient is at rank #49,593, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɛ.sɑ̃.dɛ\.
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 90843, this pair ranks #4,417 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dépendaient vs descendaient
Shared letters: adeint. Private to "dépendaient": pé. Private to "descendaient": cs.
"dépendaient" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVVVCC · "descendaient" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- descendaient ← ddescendaient · decsendaient · desccendaient · descednaient · descenadient · descendaeint · descendaiennt · descendaientt
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dépendaient" for "descendaient" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "dépendaient" or "descendaient" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dépendaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "descendaient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,417 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépendaient" and "descendaient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépendaient vs détenaient". 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 #4,417 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.