pendrevspépèreWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,110
“pendre” frequency rank
#26,497
“pépère” frequency rank
40607
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pendre pépère
Definition Attacher une chose, une personne ou un animal en haut par une de ses parties, de manière qu’elle ne touche pas en bas. Grand-père, père.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pendre and pépère apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
pendre
6 ch
pépère

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pendre is \pɑ̃dʁ\ while pépère is \pe.pɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pendre is recorded at frequency rank #14,110, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃dʁ\. pépère is at rank #26,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pe.pɛʁ\.

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 40607, this pair ranks #239,278 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pendre vs pépère

Shared letters: epr. Private to "pendre": dn. Private to "pépère": èé.

"pendre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "pépère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pendreepndre · pednre · penddre · pender · pendrre · penndre · penrde · pnedre

Frequency comparison

pendre#14,110
pépère#26,497

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pendre" and "pépère" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pendre" is a verb and "pépère" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pendre" or "pépère"?
"pendre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,110 in our French list, against #26,497 for "pépère". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pendre vs pépère

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “pendre”; for a noun, it's “pépère”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pendre” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list