tendevstenderWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,580
“tende” frequency rank
#49,393
“tender” frequency rank
86973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tende tender
Definition → voir tende de tranche. Bateau annexe d'un paquebot, d'un yacht, destiné à transporter des bagages, du combustible ou de munitions, transborder des passagers, etc.

Where the eye mixes tende and tender

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. tende runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tender's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
tende
6 ch
tender

Visual trap between tende and tender

A purely visual mix-up. tende (\tɑ̃d\) and tender (\tɑ̃.dɛʁ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “tende” sits inside “tender”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86973, 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\. tender is at rank #49,393, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃.dɛʁ\.

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 86973, this pair ranks #8,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tende vs tender

Shared letters: dent. Private to "tende": -. Private to "tender": r.

"tende" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tender" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tende ← etnde · tedne · tendde · tened · tennde · tnede · ttende
  • tender ← etnder · tedner · tendder · tenderr · tenedr · tennder · tneder · ttender

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tende" and "tender" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tɑ̃d\ versus \tɑ̃.dɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tende" or "tender"?
"tende" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,580 in our French list, against #49,393 for "tender". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tender" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tende" and "tender" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tender vs ténue". 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 #8,921 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