tendvsToddWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tend is a verb, Todd is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tend” is a verb and “Todd” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,709
“tend” frequency rank
#12,271
“Todd” frequency rank
17980
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tend Todd
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de tendre. Nom de famille.

Letter map: tend vs Todd

Shared letters muted; letters that set tend and Todd apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
tend
4 ch
Todd

Grammar separator: tend vs Todd

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tend is averb and Toddaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17980, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tend is recorded at frequency rank #5,709, classified as averb, pronounced \tɑ̃\. Todd is at rank #12,271, tagged as aname.

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 17980, this pair ranks #380,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tend vs Todd

Shared letters: dt. Private to "tend": en. Private to "Todd": o.

"tend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Todd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tendetnd · tedn · tendd · tennd · tned · ttend
  • Toddotdd · tdod · tod · ttodd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tend" for "Todd" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tend" is a verb and "Todd" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "tend" or "Todd" show up more?
"tend" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,709 in our French list, against #12,271 for "Todd". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "tend" vs "Todd" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Todd" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tend" and "Todd" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tad vs Todd". 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 #380,558 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