Which to use
“pend” and “prends” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,710
- “pend” frequency rank
- #1,123
- “prends” frequency rank
- 25833
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pend | prends |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de pendre. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de prendre. |
Where the eye mixes pend and prends
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses pend with prends
A purely visual mix-up. pend (\pɑ̃\) and prends (\pʁɑ̃\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25833, 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\. prends is at rank #1,123, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɑ̃\.
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 25833, this pair ranks #338,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pend vs prends
Shared letters: denp. Private to "pend": -. Private to "prends": rs.
"pend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "prends" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pend" and "prends" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pend" vs "prends" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pend" and "prends" 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 "prends" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #338,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pend" and "prends" 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 #338,610 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.