rendaisvsrendraiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,775
“rendais” frequency rank
#32,561
“rendrai” frequency rank
63336
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rendais rendrai
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de rendre. Première personne du singulier du futur de rendre.

Where the eye mixes rendais and rendrai

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. rendais (CVCCVVC) and rendrai (CVCCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
rendais
7 ch
rendrai

Visual trap between rendais and rendrai

A purely visual mix-up. rendais (\ʁɑ̃.dɛ\) and rendrai (\ʁɑ̃.dʁe\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63336, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rendais is recorded at frequency rank #30,775, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.dɛ\. rendrai is at rank #32,561, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.dʁe\.

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 63336, this pair ranks #82,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rendais vs rendrai

Shared letters: adeinr. Private to "rendais": s. Private to "rendrai": -.

"rendais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "rendrai" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rendais ← erndais · rednais · renadis · rendaiss · rendasi · renddais · rendias · renndais
  • rendrai ← erndrai · rednrai · rendari · renddrai · rendria · rendrrai · renndrai · renrdai

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rendais" for "rendrai" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɑ̃.dɛ\ versus \ʁɑ̃.dʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rendais" or "rendrai"?
"rendais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,775 in our French list, against #32,561 for "rendrai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rendais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rendrai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #82,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rendais" and "rendrai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rendrai vs rendrais". 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 #82,467 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