renaîtvsrendaisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,327
“renaît” frequency rank
#30,775
“rendais” frequency rank
59102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature renaît rendais
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de renaître. Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de rendre.

Where the eye mixes renaît and rendais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. renaît runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against rendais's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
renaît
7 ch
rendais

Look-alike desk: renaît vs rendais

A purely visual mix-up. renaît (\ʁə.nɛ\) and rendais (\ʁɑ̃.dɛ\) 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 59102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

renaît is recorded at frequency rank #28,327, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.nɛ\. rendais is at rank #30,775, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.dɛ\.

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 59102, this pair ranks #105,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of renaît vs rendais

Shared letters: aenr. Private to "renaît": tî. Private to "rendais": dis.

"renaît" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "rendais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rendais ← erndais · rednais · renadis · rendaiss · rendasi · renddais · rendias · renndais

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "renaît" and "rendais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.nɛ\ versus \ʁɑ̃.dɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "renaît" or "rendais"?
"renaît" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,327 in our French list, against #30,775 for "rendais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "renaît" and "rendais" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "renaît" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rendais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #105,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "renaît" and "rendais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relit vs renaît". 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 #105,064 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