Which to use
“pendre” and “prendre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,110
- “pendre” frequency rank
- #198
- “prendre” frequency rank
- 14308
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pendre | prendre |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Saisir, mettre en sa main. |
Where the eye mixes pendre and prendre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pendre and prendre
A purely visual mix-up. pendre (\pɑ̃dʁ\) and prendre (\pʁɑ̃dʁ\) 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 14308, 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\. prendre is at rank #198, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁɑ̃dʁ\.
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 14308, this pair ranks #397,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pendre vs prendre
Shared letters: denpr. Private to "pendre": -. Private to "prendre": -.
"pendre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "prendre" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pendre" and "prendre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pendre" vs "prendre" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pendre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prendre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pendre" and "prendre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pendre vs perdrez". 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 #397,265 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.