Which to use
“descende” and “descendre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,440
- “descende” frequency rank
- #3,835
- “descendre” frequency rank
- 35275
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | descende | descendre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de descendre. | Aller de haut en bas. |
Where the eye mixes descende and descendre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. descende runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against descendre's 9 (CVCCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: descende vs descendre
A purely visual mix-up. descende (\dɛ.sɑ̃d\) and descendre (\de.sɑ̃dʁ\) 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 35275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
descende is recorded at frequency rank #31,440, classified as averb, pronounced \dɛ.sɑ̃d\. descendre is at rank #3,835, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.sɑ̃dʁ\.
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 35275, this pair ranks #277,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of descende vs descendre
Shared letters: cdens. Private to "descende": -. Private to "descendre": r.
"descende" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "descendre" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "descende" and "descendre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "descende" or "descendre" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "descende" and "descendre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "descende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "descendre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #277,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "descende" and "descendre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "descende vs descendra". 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 #277,928 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.