Which to use
“entendais” and “étendait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,466
- “entendais” frequency rank
- #22,143
- “étendait” frequency rank
- 36609
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | entendais | étendait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de entendre. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de étendre. |
Where the eye mixes entendais and étendait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. entendais runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVVC) against étendait's 8 (VCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses entendais with étendait
A purely visual mix-up. entendais (\ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\) and étendait (\e.tɑ̃.dɛ\) 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 36609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
entendais is recorded at frequency rank #14,466, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\. étendait is at rank #22,143, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.tɑ̃.dɛ\.
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 36609, this pair ranks #268,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of entendais vs étendait
Shared letters: adeint. Private to "entendais": s. Private to "étendait": é.
"entendais" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC · "étendait" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- entendais ← enetndais · enntendais · entednais · entenadis · entendaiss · entendasi · entenddais · entendias
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "entendais" and "étendait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "entendais" or "étendait" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "entendais" and "étendait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "entendais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "étendait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #268,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "entendais" and "étendait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étendait vs étendit". 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 #268,387 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.