Which to use
“fend” and “fendre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,951
- “fend” frequency rank
- #31,490
- “fendre” frequency rank
- 60441
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fend | fendre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de fendre. | Diviser, séparer, couper en long ou en large, ou de toute autre manière. |
Where the eye mixes fend and fendre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fend runs 4 letters (CVCC) against fendre's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fend with fendre
A purely visual mix-up. fend (\fɑ̃\) and fendre (\fɑ̃dʁ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “fend” sits inside “fendre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fend is recorded at frequency rank #28,951, classified as averb, pronounced \fɑ̃\. fendre is at rank #31,490, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɑ̃dʁ\.
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 60441, this pair ranks #97,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fend vs fendre
Shared letters: defn. Private to "fend": -. Private to "fendre": r.
"fend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fendre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fend" and "fendre" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "fend" or "fendre" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fendre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #97,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fend" and "fendre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fend". 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 #97,561 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.