fenduvsfendueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fendu is a adjective, fendue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#27,435
“fendu” frequency rank
#37,811
“fendue” frequency rank
65246
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fendu fendue
Definition Qui présente une fente, une fêlure. Jeune fille, jeune femme.

Same sound, different letters: fendu vs fendue

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. fendu runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against fendue's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
fendu
6 ch
fendue

Same sound, different spelling - fendu / fendue

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: fendu and fendue carry the same recorded pronunciation, \fɑ̃.dy\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “fendu” sits inside “fendue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fendu is recorded at frequency rank #27,435, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɑ̃.dy\. fendue is at rank #37,811, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɑ̃.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 65246, this pair ranks #73,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fendu vs fendue

Shared letters: defnu. Private to "fendu": -. Private to "fendue": -.

"fendu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fendue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fenduefndu · fednu · fenddu · fenndu · fenud · ffendu · fnedu
  • fendueefndue · fednue · fenddue · fendeu · fenndue · fenude · ffendue · fnedue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fendu" for "fendue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fendu" is an adjective and "fendue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fendu" vs "fendue" - which ranks higher?
"fendu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,435 in our French list, against #37,811 for "fendue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"fendu" and "fendue" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fendu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fendue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fendu" and "fendue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fendue vs fondues". 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 #73,187 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