pendvsponduTell them apart

Quick tell: pend is a verb, pondu is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pend” is a verb and “pondu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,710
“pend” frequency rank
#30,311
“pondu” frequency rank
55021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pend pondu
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de pendre. Feuille de manioc

Where the eye mixes pend and pondu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pend
5 ch
pondu

Visual trap between pend and pondu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pend is \pɑ̃\ while pondu is \pɔn.dy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55021, 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\. pondu is at rank #30,311, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔn.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 55021, this pair ranks #130,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pend vs pondu

Shared letters: dnp. Private to "pend": e. Private to "pondu": ou.

"pend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pondu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pendepnd · pedn · pendd · pennd · pned · ppend
  • ponduopndu · pnodu · podnu · ponddu · ponndu · ponud · ppondu

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pend" and "pondu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pend" is a verb and "pondu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pend" or "pondu"?
"pend" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,710 in our French list, against #30,311 for "pondu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pondu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pend" and "pondu" 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 #130,165 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