tendevstendentTell them apart

Quick tell: tende is a noun, tendent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tende” is a noun and “tendent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,580
“tende” frequency rank
#11,313
“tendent” frequency rank
48893
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tende tendent
Definition → voir tende de tranche. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de tendre.

Same sound, different letters: tende vs tendent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. tende runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tendent's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
tende
7 ch
tendent

Ear matches; page differs - tende and tendent

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: tende and tendent carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tɑ̃d\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “tende” sits inside “tendent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tende is recorded at frequency rank #37,580, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃d\. tendent is at rank #11,313, tagged as averb, 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 48893, this pair ranks #175,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tende vs tendent

Shared letters: dent. Private to "tende": -. Private to "tendent": -.

"tende" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tendent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tendeetnde · tedne · tendde · tened · tennde · tnede · ttende
  • tendentetndent · tednent · tenddent · tendennt · tendentt · tendetn · tendnet · tenednt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tende" for "tendent" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tende" is a noun and "tendent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tende" or "tendent"?
"tendent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,313 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

"tende" and "tendent" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tendent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tende" and "tendent" 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 #175,187 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