descendezvsdescendusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,637
“descendez” frequency rank
#22,539
“descendus” frequency rank
56176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature descendez descendus
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de descendre. Participe passé masculin pluriel de descendre.

Where the eye mixes descendez and descendus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. descendez and descendus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
descendez
9 ch
descendus

Why the eye confuses descendez with descendus

A purely visual mix-up. descendez (\dɛ.sɑ̃.de\) and descendus (\dɛ.sɑ̃.dy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

descendez is recorded at frequency rank #33,637, classified as averb, pronounced \dɛ.sɑ̃.de\. descendus is at rank #22,539, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɛ.sɑ̃.dy\.

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 56176, this pair ranks #122,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of descendez vs descendus

Shared letters: cdens. Private to "descendez": z. Private to "descendus": u.

"descendez" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "descendus" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • descendez ← ddescendez · decsendez · desccendez · descednez · descenddez · descendezz · descendze · descenedz
  • descendus ← ddescendus · decsendus · desccendus · descednus · descenddus · descendsu · descenduss · descenndus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "descendez" and "descendus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dɛ.sɑ̃.de\ versus \dɛ.sɑ̃.dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "descendez" vs "descendus" - which ranks higher?
"descendus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,539 in our French list, against #33,637 for "descendez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "descendez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "descendus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "descendez" and "descendus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "descendez 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 #122,741 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