retenusvsrevendusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,122
“retenus” frequency rank
#48,161
“revendus” frequency rank
59283
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature retenus revendus
Definition Masculin pluriel du participe passé du verbe retenir. Participe passé masculin pluriel de revendre.

Where the eye mixes retenus and revendus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
retenus
8 ch
revendus

Visual trap between retenus and revendus

A purely visual mix-up. retenus (\ʁət.ny\) and revendus (\ʁə.vɑ̃.dy\) 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 59283, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

retenus is recorded at frequency rank #11,122, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁət.ny\. revendus is at rank #48,161, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.vɑ̃.dy\.

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 59283, this pair ranks #104,029 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of retenus vs revendus

Shared letters: enrsu. Private to "retenus": t. Private to "revendus": dv.

"retenus" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "revendus" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • retenusertenus · reetnus · retennus · retensu · retenuss · reteuns · retneus · rettenus
  • revenduservendus · reevndus · revednus · revenddus · revendsu · revenduss · revenndus · revenuds

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "retenus" and "revendus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁət.ny\ versus \ʁə.vɑ̃.dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "retenus" or "revendus" show up more?
"retenus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,122 in our French list, against #48,161 for "revendus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "retenus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "revendus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,029 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "retenus" and "revendus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "revendus vs revêtus". 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 #104,029 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