tendevstendueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,580
“tende” frequency rank
#10,957
“tendue” frequency rank
48537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tende tendue
Definition → voir tende de tranche. Action de tendre un filet, un piège.

Where the eye mixes tende and tendue

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

5 ch
tende
6 ch
tendue

Why the eye confuses tende with tendue

A purely visual mix-up. tende (\tɑ̃d\) and tendue (\tɑ̃.dy\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48537, 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\. tendue is at rank #10,957, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃.dy\.

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 48537, this pair ranks #178,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tende vs tendue

Shared letters: dent. Private to "tende": -. Private to "tendue": u.

"tende" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tendue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tendeetnde · tedne · tendde · tened · tennde · tnede · ttende
  • tendueetndue · tednue · tenddue · tendeu · tenndue · tenude · tnedue · ttendue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tende" and "tendue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\tɑ̃d\ versus \tɑ̃.dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tende" or "tendue"?
"tendue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,957 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tendue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #178,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tende" and "tendue" 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 #178,133 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