tendevstentezWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#37,580
“tende” frequency rank
#18,341
“tentez” frequency rank
55921
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tende tentez
Definition → voir tende de tranche. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de tenter.

Where the eye mixes tende and tentez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tende runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tentez's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
tende
6 ch
tentez

Visual trap between tende and tentez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tende is \tɑ̃d\ while tentez is \tɑ̃.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55921, 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\. tentez is at rank #18,341, tagged as averb, pronounced \tɑ̃.te\.

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 55921, this pair ranks #124,347 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tende vs tentez

Shared letters: ent. Private to "tende": d. Private to "tentez": z.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tende ← etnde · tedne · tendde · tened · tennde · tnede · ttende
  • tentez ← etntez · tenetz · tenntez · tentezz · tenttez · tentze · tetnez · tnetez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tende" and "tentez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tende" is a noun and "tentez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "tende" or "tentez" show up more?
"tentez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,341 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.

Useful next steps

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 "tentez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,347 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tende" and "tentez" 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 #124,347 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