Which to use
“entendait” and “étendant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,318
- “entendait” frequency rank
- #17,050
- “étendant” frequency rank
- 27368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | entendait | étendant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de entendre. | Participe présent de étendre. |
Where the eye mixes entendait and étendant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. entendait runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVVC) against étendant's 8 (VCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses entendait with étendant
A purely visual mix-up. entendait (\ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\) and étendant (\e.tɑ̃.dɑ̃\) 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 27368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
entendait is recorded at frequency rank #10,318, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\. étendant is at rank #17,050, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.tɑ̃.dɑ̃\.
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 27368, this pair ranks #329,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of entendait vs étendant
Shared letters: adent. Private to "entendait": i. Private to "étendant": é.
"entendait" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC · "étendant" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- entendait ← enetndait · enntendait · entednait · entenadit · entendaitt · entendati · entenddait · entendiat
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "entendait" and "étendant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "entendait" or "étendant"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "entendait" and "étendant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "entendait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "étendant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "entendait" and "étendant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étendant 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 #329,418 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.