descenduevsdescendusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,173
“descendue” frequency rank
#22,539
“descendus” frequency rank
46712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature descendue descendus
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de descendre. Participe passé masculin pluriel de descendre.

Same sound, different letters: descendue vs descendus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. descendue (CVCCVCCVV) and descendus (CVCCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
descendue
9 ch
descendus

Same sound, different spelling - descendue / descendus

This is the hard kind. descendue and descendus are pronounced identically (\dɛ.sɑ̃.dy\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - e in “descendue” becomes s in “descendus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

descendue is recorded at frequency rank #24,173, classified as averb, pronounced \dɛ.sɑ̃.dy\. 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 46712, this pair ranks #192,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of descendue vs descendus

Shared letters: cdensu. Private to "descendue": -. Private to "descendus": -.

"descendue" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "descendus" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • descendue ← ddescendue · decsendue · desccendue · descednue · descenddue · descendeu · descenndue · descenude
  • descendus ← ddescendus · decsendus · desccendus · descednus · descenddus · descendsu · descenduss · descenndus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "descendue" and "descendus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\dɛ.sɑ̃.dy\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "descendue" 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 #24,173 for "descendue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"descendue" and "descendus" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "descendue" 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 #192,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "descendue" and "descendus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "descendus vs détendus". 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 #192,728 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