Which to use
“entendre” and “étendre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #872
- “entendre” frequency rank
- #5,515
- “étendre” frequency rank
- 6387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | entendre | étendre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Percevoir un son. | Faire qu’une chose acquière plus de surface ou plus de volume, soit en la rendant plus mince, soit en la tirant ou en la dilatant. |
Where the eye mixes entendre and étendre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: entendre vs étendre
A purely visual mix-up. entendre (\ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\) and étendre (\e.tɑ̃dʁ\) 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 6387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
entendre is recorded at frequency rank #872, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\. étendre is at rank #5,515, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.tɑ̃dʁ\.
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 6387, this pair ranks #426,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of entendre vs étendre
Shared letters: denrt. Private to "entendre": -. Private to "étendre": é.
"entendre" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCCV · "étendre" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- entendre ← enetndre · enntendre · entednre · entenddre · entender · entendrre · entenndre · entenrde
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "entendre" and "étendre" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "entendre" or "étendre" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "entendre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "étendre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #426,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "entendre" and "étendre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éteindra vs étendre". 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 #426,373 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.