Which to use
“descendre” and “descends” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,835
- “descendre” frequency rank
- #19,255
- “descends” frequency rank
- 23090
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | descendre | descends |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Aller de haut en bas. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de descendre. |
Where the eye mixes descendre and descends
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. descendre runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCCV) against descends's 8 (CVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: descendre vs descends
A purely visual mix-up. descendre (\de.sɑ̃dʁ\) and descends (\dɛ.sɑ̃\) 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 23090, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
descendre is recorded at frequency rank #3,835, classified as averb, pronounced \de.sɑ̃dʁ\. descends is at rank #19,255, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɛ.sɑ̃\.
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 23090, this pair ranks #354,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of descendre vs descends
Shared letters: cdens. Private to "descendre": r. Private to "descends": -.
"descendre" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV · "descends" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "descendre" and "descends" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "descendre" or "descends" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "descendre" and "descends" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "descendre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "descends" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #354,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "descendre" and "descends" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décents vs descends". 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 #354,430 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.