Which to use
“tend” and “told” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,709
- “tend” frequency rank
- #45,349
- “told” frequency rank
- 51058
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tend | told |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de tendre. | Prétérit de tell. |
Where the eye mixes tend and told
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tend and told follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: tend vs told
A purely visual mix-up. tend (\tɑ̃\) and told (\təʊld\) 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 51058, 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\. told is at rank #45,349, tagged as averb, pronounced \təʊld\.
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 51058, this pair ranks #157,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tend vs told
Shared letters: dt. Private to "tend": en. Private to "told": lo.
"tend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tend" and "told" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "tend" or "told"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "told" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #157,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tend" and "told" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tad vs told". 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 #157,910 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.