Which to use
“pend” is a verb and “pendu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,710
- “pend” frequency rank
- #14,756
- “pendu” frequency rank
- 39466
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pend | pendu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de pendre. | Attaché en hauteur à quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes pend and pendu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pend and pendu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pend is \pɑ̃\ while pendu is \pɑ̃.dy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “pend” sits inside “pendu”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pend is recorded at frequency rank #24,710, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃\. pendu is at rank #14,756, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɑ̃.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 39466, this pair ranks #247,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pend vs pendu
Shared letters: denp. Private to "pend": -. Private to "pendu": u.
"pend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pendu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pend" and "pendu" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pend" vs "pendu" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pend" and "pendu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pendu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #247,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pend" and "pendu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pend vs pernod". 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 #247,743 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.