stadevsstandsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,191
“stade” frequency rank
#16,486
“stands” frequency rank
17677
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stade stands
Definition Mesure de longueur valant à peu près 180 mètres. Pluriel de stand.

Where the eye mixes stade and stands

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
stade
6 ch
stands

Why the eye confuses stade with stands

A purely visual mix-up. stade (\stad\) and stands (\stɑ̃d\) 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 17677, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stade is recorded at frequency rank #1,191, classified as anoun, pronounced \stad\. stands is at rank #16,486, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stɑ̃d\.

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 17677, this pair ranks #382,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of stade vs stands

Shared letters: adst. Private to "stade": e. Private to "stands": n.

"stade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "stands" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stadesatde · sstade · stadde · staed · stdae · sttade · tsade
  • standssatnds · sstands · stadns · standds · standss · stannds · stansd · stnads

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stade" and "stands" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\stad\ versus \stɑ̃d\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "stade" or "stands"?
"stade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,191 in our French list, against #16,486 for "stands". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "stade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stands" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #382,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stade" and "stands" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stands vs Staps". 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 #382,019 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