Which to use
“dépends” and “détends” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,416
- “dépends” frequency rank
- #40,734
- “détends” frequency rank
- 68150
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépends | détends |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de dépendre. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de détendre. |
Where the eye mixes dépends and détends
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dépends and détends follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses dépends with détends
A purely visual mix-up. dépends (\de.pɑ̃\) 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 a single letter - p in “dépends” becomes t in “détends”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dépends is recorded at frequency rank #27,416, classified as averb, pronounced \de.pɑ̃\. 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 68150, this pair ranks #60,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dépends vs détends
Shared letters: densé. Private to "dépends": p. Private to "détends": t.
"dépends" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC · "détends" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dépends" and "détends" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dépends" vs "détends" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dépends" and "détends" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dépends" 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 #60,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépends" and "détends" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "détends vs détendus". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #60,339 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.