pendusvspensésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pendus” and “pensés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,560
“pendus” frequency rank
#34,665
“pensés” frequency rank
62225
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pendus pensés
Definition Masculin pluriel de pendu. Masculin pluriel de pensé.

Where the eye mixes pendus and pensés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pendus and pensés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
pendus
6 ch
pensés

Look-alike desk: pendus vs pensés

A purely visual mix-up. pendus (\pɑ̃.dy\) and pensés (\pɑ̃.se\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62225, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pendus is recorded at frequency rank #27,560, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɑ̃.dy\. pensés is at rank #34,665, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\.

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 62225, this pair ranks #88,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pendus vs pensés

Shared letters: enps. Private to "pendus": du. Private to "pensés": é.

"pendus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pensés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pendus ← epndus · pednus · penddus · pendsu · penduss · penndus · penuds · pnedus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pendus" and "pensés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɑ̃.dy\ versus \pɑ̃.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pendus" or "pensés" show up more?
"pendus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,560 in our French list, against #34,665 for "pensés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pendus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pensés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #88,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pendus" and "pensés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pensés vs pieuses". 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 #88,223 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