tempevstendeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,706
“tempe” frequency rank
#37,580
“tende” frequency rank
61286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tempe tende
Definition Partie latérale de la tête entre l’oreille et le front. → voir tende de tranche.

Where the eye mixes tempe and tende

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tempe and tende follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
tempe
5 ch
tende

Visual trap between tempe and tende

A purely visual mix-up. tempe (\tɑ̃p\) and tende (\tɑ̃d\) 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 61286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tempe is recorded at frequency rank #23,706, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃p\. tende is at rank #37,580, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃d\.

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 61286, this pair ranks #93,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tempe vs tende

Shared letters: et. Private to "tempe": mp. Private to "tende": dn.

"tempe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tende" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tempe ← etmpe · temep · temmpe · temppe · tepme · tmepe · ttempe
  • tende ← etnde · tedne · tendde · tened · tennde · tnede · ttende

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tempe" and "tende" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\tɑ̃p\ versus \tɑ̃d\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tempe" vs "tende" - which ranks higher?
"tempe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,706 in our French list, against #37,580 for "tende". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tempe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tempe" and "tende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tende vs tender". 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 #93,064 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