étenduevsétendusTell them apart

Quick tell: étendue is a noun, étendus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“étendue” is a noun and “étendus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,207
“étendue” frequency rank
#23,432
“étendus” frequency rank
28639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature étendue étendus
Definition Dimension d’une chose en longueur, largeur et profondeur. Masculin pluriel de étendu.

Same sound, different letters: étendue vs étendus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. étendue (VCVCCVV) and étendus (VCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
étendue
7 ch
étendus

Same sound, different spelling - étendue / étendus

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: étendue and étendus carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.tɑ̃.dy\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “étendue” becomes s in “étendus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

étendue is recorded at frequency rank #5,207, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.tɑ̃.dy\. étendus is at rank #23,432, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.tɑ̃.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 28639, this pair ranks #321,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of étendue vs étendus

Shared letters: dentué. Private to "étendue": -. Private to "étendus": s.

"étendue" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV  ·  "étendus" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "étendue" and "étendus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "étendue" is a noun and "étendus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "étendue" vs "étendus" - which ranks higher?
"étendue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,207 in our French list, against #23,432 for "étendus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "étendue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étendus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "étendue" and "étendus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entendis vs étendus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #321,573 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