fenduevsfenteTell them apart

Which to use

“fendue” and “fente” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,811
“fendue” frequency rank
#21,624
“fente” frequency rank
59435
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fendue fente
Definition Jeune fille, jeune femme. Division en long pratiquée à un corps, à une masse quelconque.

Where the eye mixes fendue and fente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fendue runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against fente's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fendue
5 ch
fente

Visual trap between fendue and fente

A purely visual mix-up. fendue (\fɑ̃.dy\) and fente (\fɑ̃t\) 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 59435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fendue is recorded at frequency rank #37,811, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɑ̃.dy\. fente is at rank #21,624, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɑ̃t\.

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 59435, this pair ranks #103,148 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fendue vs fente

Shared letters: efn. Private to "fendue": du. Private to "fente": t.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fendueefndue · fednue · fenddue · fendeu · fenndue · fenude · ffendue · fnedue
  • fenteefnte · fenet · fennte · fentte · fetne · ffente · fnete

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fendue" and "fente" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fɑ̃.dy\ versus \fɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "fendue" or "fente" show up more?
"fente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,624 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

Eye-level mix-up between "fendue" and "fente" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fendue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,148 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fendue" and "fente" 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 #103,148 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